HI-COST 0~ LIVING CAUSE AND CURE A ‘PEACEFUL SOLUTION

LINCOLN’S PROPHECY

I see in the near future a crisis arising which un- nerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war corporations have been enthroned and the money power will en- deavor to establish its reign by working on the preju- dices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this time m#ore anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.

-Abraham Lincoln.

W. F. RILES TOLEDO, OHIO . . .

PRICE 25 CENTS

ill

TV. F. RIES AUTHOR OF

“Men and Mules” “Roosevelt Exposes Socialism”

“Monkeys and Monkeycttes” “Bees and Butterflies” “Lions and Lambs” “Quiz and ‘Tis”

“Co-operative Farming” “+sh Philosophy”

“Heads and Hands” “Hawks and Hens,” etc., etc. TOLEDO, OHIO &-a r, .-... i,

PREFACE.

The high cost of living and the world-wide. unrest are serious matters that need determined and immediate atten- tion.

This booklet points out the cause and offers a cure. The method urged is peaceful and permanent.

The contents of this booklet are foreshadowed by the following plain words of Justice Brandies of the. U. S.

* Supreme Court: “The present capitalist profiteering system is as inconsistent with

real democracy as farming out *he taxes to the speculative tax gath- erer, so common in the good old days.

“The position of the money king is much like that of the monarchs in the kingdoms of old. We have no place in the American democracy for the Money King, not even for the merchant prince. Industrial democracy must supplement political democracy ; industrial liberty, political liberty. One without the other is a failure as present world conditions attest.

“Political independence and industrial dependence cannot long exist in the same individual or nation. We are confronted in the twentieth century: as we were in the nineteenth century. with an ir- reconcilable confltct. Our democracy could not endure half free and half slave.

“The essence of capitalism with its inevitable pronteering and trust is a combination of capitalists, by the capitalists, for the capital- ists.

“The essence of the co-operative society is association of the people, by the people and for the people * * * *

“The power of wealth and of privilege can be successfully met hy the people only by utilizing to the full extent the power of num- hers; utilizing that power, not only politically but industrially l l * Emancipation &n come only through the utilization by the people, not only of their power of production but by their own purchasing power.”

“Co-operation supplements political economy by organizing the distribntion of wealth. It touches no man’s fortune; it seeks no plunder; it causes no disturbance in society; it gives no trouble to st;ltesmen ; it enters into no secret associations: it contemplates no violence; it subverts no order; it envies no dignity; it asks no favors; it keeps no terms with the idle and will break no faith with the

l industrious; it means self-help, self-dependence, and such shares of the common competence as labor shall earn or thought can.wtn, and this it intends to have.“-G. J. Holyoake.

“When all denunciations hare stopped, when all protests have ended, a-hen all investigations have been made of the high cost of living the intelligent investigator will be forced to the conclusion that co-operation is the only possible and lasting cure of the evil.” -John II. Walker, President State Federatiou of Labor of Illinois,

CHAPTER I.

STATING THE CASE.

Human needs are manv. The primary needs are food, sheher and clothing. without these humanity would perish. Only when man’s necessities are supplied can he pursue the higher aims of life-physical, mental, moral and spiritual development.

How to feed, &the and shelter the human race is therefore the probEem of all problems.

The world has had many systems of supplying man’s . fundamental wants. In all past history every economic change came as a result of necessity-each system fulfilled its mission and then passed out of existence to make room

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for the next step in advance Man did not “invent” these various systems. Necessity

and experience discarded the old and developed the new economic systems. These were not sudden changes. Many of these economic changes dragged through centuries of time. No power on earth could retain a system when once worn out and no power could install a new system until economic conditions were ripe for a change.

To illustrate: Cannibalism was a necessity because in the earlv historv of the human race food was so scarce that when savage tribes met, the victors ate the flesh of the vanquished. No human power could abolisha cnni- balism so long as food was scarce because self-preservation is the first law of nature. In the same way no power could retain cannibalism when food became plentiful.

At a later period savages learned to grow food and when it was found that an individual ‘could produce a little more than his keep he was not killed but enslaved. The combined surplus produced by a group of captured savages-slaves-sufficed to keep a few leaders in idleness and even luxury. However, slavery was a distinct im- provement over cannibalism because it enabled the few to. develop their mentality. Man can not develop mentally or otherwise so long as all his working hours are spent in grinding toil. Only when he lifts his nose from the grindstone does he begin to make onward and upward strides. This accounts for the universal demand for short- er hours.

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At a still later period it was discovered that serfdom would benefit both the slave and his master. Under serf- dom the slave was allowed to till the soil half a day for himself and half a day for his master. The slave was allowed to marry and rear a family. The serf was com- pelled to work hard for his master forenoons and he worked like a beaver all afternoon and often far into the night because this went to himself and fari7ily. The serfs were not allowed to leave the land and when his master sold his estate the serfs remained on the land just as a fence or a ditch is a part of an estate. The net result of serfdom was that the serf, like the slave, got just enough to keep alive and reproduce himself, while the master got much more than under slavery.

At a still later period when hand tools and machinery were invented the master class found that it was much more profitable to free their slaves and serfs than to keep them chained to the soil.

The master class was shrewd enough to retain owner- ship of the land, the natural resources, the mills, mines, railroads and all other means of production and distribu- tion. To this day the ruling class own and control all the principal means of production, distribution, communication and natural resources.

This is private ownership-it is capitalism-it is hell- it is the system under which the world is now trying to do business.

Every reader should get a copy of ‘(Morgan’s Ancient Society” and a ,copy of “Mills Struggle for Existence”.

No one may lay claim to having a correct knowledge of the growth and development and future trend of society * until he has read these books.

In view of the many separate and distinct syste’ms under which society has existed God pity the poor boob who says that “things allus was and.allus will be as they now is.)’ .

Pity the poor captains of industry-the profiteers and their retainers-when they jail, hang or deport thinkers for daring to say that the present system, like the vast number of others that have preceeded it-has fulfilled its historic mission and is ready for the discard.

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF CAPITALISM. What has capitalism done for humanity? Many good

things and also many bad things. Let us consider the good things first.~ The defenders of the present system contend that

capitalism has produced wonderful results. Wonderful is right. Wonderful for good, and still more wonderful for evil.

In the early days of hand tool production the owner -usually a skilled mechanic-was a real help to his as- sistants. Through his superior technical skill and man- agement his wage workers were enabled to turn out a greater total product.

As the laborers became skilled through years of ap- prenticeship the more ambitious packed up their hand bag of tools and started in business for themselves. This was nossible because raw material was plentiful and prac- iically free.

The invention of machinery has changed all this. The simple hand-tools of by-gone years have grown into vast stretches of machines scientifically arranged in modern factories. Hundreds of different machines are now grouped under one roof-each machine performing, automatically, some one particular part of production. Thus a piece of leather passes through 210 processes in the course of inaking a pair of shoes-mostly automatic machine pro- cesses. In less than one hour a piece of leather is converted into a pair of shoes that formerly required a skilled me- chanic ten hours to nroduce in the dass of hammer, wooden peg, awl and wax-end.

Henry Ford’s factory covers hundreds of acres of land, he has several hundred millions invested and he employes all told over 100,OOU men. In view of this vast equipment it is foolish to say that each of Ford’s 100,000 men can pull out and start a factory of his own. It is un- thinkable. What is true of Ford is true of the steel busi- ness the oil business and practically all lines of produc- tion-and distribution.

As a result the skilled mechanic can not compete with machine and factory production. The same is true in all lines of production and distribution. Therefore, laborers can no longer embark in business for themselves. They are doomed to servitude so long as the present system shall last.

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LABOR NO LONGER FREE. The once free and independent worker has become the

dependent cog in the machinery of modern production. I repeat that in the early d&elopment of hand tools and factory production the individual boss and owner often played an important part-a part that resulted in increased production. But that day has long since passed. The mo- ment an infant industry reaches a sizable proportion it is incorporated. Idler’s invest inherited wealth in indus- tries and thus reap unearned incomes. In this way an idle, useless individual ofteu invests inherited money in bun- dreds of different factories, many of which he has never seen. To accomplish this it is necessary only to v&it a stock exchange and in a few minutes a moneyed man can become a part owner of hundreds of mills, railroads, mines and factories by simply investing in stocks. These idle investors hire a board of directors, who in turn hire mana- gers, superintendents and foremen. These managers and superintendents are hired because they are adepts at de- vising piece-work and other methods of squeezing the last drop of work out of their employees. They are also ex- perts at destroying competition or forcing them into a trust.

It is thus seen that these modern investors and owners no longer perform any useful service. They consume with- out producing? and any person that produces without con- ing is a parasite, pure and simple. Make no mistake about that. They are leeches on society-blood-suckers con- suming the product of the toilers. A burglar with gun in hand gets something for nothing. He consumes without producing. But at least he risks his life. Society detests him and jails or hangs him.

Inheritors of wealth and profiteers get something for nothing. They do not risk life nor limb and we send them to congress. Consistency, thou art a Jewel. The system is rotten. Much of the wealth of today has been inherited. In a few years all estates and large fortunes will pass on to the next generation through inheritance. Since all wealth is created by applying mental and physical labor to natural resources, and raw material, it follows, logically, that if an idler is in possession .of wealth he did not create, somewhere is a man who produced wealth he did not get. Capitalism-modern business-rewards the man who does the least with the most and rewards him who

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does the most with the least. Wash women, floor scruh- bers, street cleaners, house maids, sewer diggers and com- mon labor of all kinds are proof that it. doesn’t pay to work long hours at high speed. If proof were needed it is furnished by the fact that everybody tries to escape this hard, but highly necessary work. Members of the upper classes who happen to lose their investments commit sui- cide rather than enter the ranks of honest toil. This proves that the rich really despise work and the workers.

CAPITAL VS. CAPITALISTS. A factory, railroad, mill, mine, etc., is capital. In other

words capital is that portion of wealth used to create more wealth.

The ownership of these factories, mills, mines etc., are represented by stocks and bonds.

The owners of these stocks and bonds are Capitalists. Be sure to get the distinction between Capital and

Capitalists. Capital-as represented by industries, etc., is needed-Capitalists are not needed, any more than you need a wart on the end of your nose or a blood sucker on your body. Not a particle more?

The utter uselessness of caoitalists is well illustrated in the case of Harry Thaw, w6o through inheritance, .re- ceives an annual income of a half million dollars not’with- standing the fact that Thaw is a criminal, a murder and a lunatic confin,ed in an asylum. In the same way, Viu- cent Astor-a likeable young chap, with splendid manners, has a yearly income of 12 million dollars toward which he never turned a hand. The poor tenement dwellers, and sweat shop workers on the East Side of New York City after 365 days of ceaseless toil and depri.vation hand these 12 million dollars to vounP; Astor because he inherited his dad’s millions. Fine $tunt;isn’t it?

Every city has miles and miles of elegant mansions in which live idle dudes and dames who consume without producing. They never turn a hand. Each mansion main- tains maids, servants and lackeys by the score. A few blocks awav are vast stretch’es of hovels and slums in which live in misery and want the millions of toilers whose sweat produced.all this wealth and elegance. Look about you and be convince&of this fact.

Most of this weath has been inherited and the rest has been gouged out of labor’s share.

In -connection with theGdanger to the Republic of

permitting large fortunes to descend intact to relatives, the Industrial Relations Commission said:

“Resides the econotilic signitbxnce of these great inequalities of wealth and incomr, there is a social aspect which equally merits the attention of Congress. It has been shown that the great fortunes of those who have profited by the enormous expansion of American industry have already passed or will pass in a few years, by right of inheritance to the control of heirs or the trustees who act as their ‘vice regents.’ They are frequently styled by our newspapers %on- archs of Industry,’ and indeed occupy +thin our Republic a position almost exactly analogous to that of Feudal Lords.”

“These heirs, owners hy virtue of the accident of birth, control the livlihood and have the power to dictate the happiness or unhappiness of more human beings than populated England in the Middle Ages. Their principalities, it is true, are seattercd and. through the medium of stock ownership, shared in part with others; but they are none the less real. In fact such scattered, invisible industrial principalities are a greater menace to the welfare of the Nation than would be equal power consolidated into numerous petty kingdoms in different parts of the country. They might then he visualized and guarded against; now their influence is invisible and permeates and controls every phase of life and industry. x x x x

“The families of these industrial princes are already well estab- lished and are knit togethrr not only by commercial alliances and trusts but by a network of intermarriages which assures harmonious action whenever thrir common interest is threatened.”

ANNUL INHERITANCE. Ask the average person if he believes in equal oppor-

tunity and he will quickly and emphatically reply, “Why, of course!”

In nine cases out of ten the fellow means well, but because he doesn’t think he unintentionallv moves him- self to be inconsistent.

I f one really believes in equally opportunity (as dis- tinct from equal pavl he must also believe in its corallary the annulhnent of inheritance. Unless all inheritance be annulled how will your son and my son who inherit our debts and funeral expenses start out on an equal oppor- tunity basis with Rockefeller’s son who inherits two billion dollars with an annual income of ~150,000,000?

According to census reports 72% of the American peo- ple do not own so much as a home. How are the children of these homeless and destitude people to compete with the children of “Rocky” Morgan, Armour, Schwab, Ford, DuPont. Astor. Vanderbilt and that bunch? Answer me that? ’

The fact is it can’t be answered except in the negative. Then why not cut out all this 4th of July oratory stuff

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about our “glorious country-the land of the free and the home (homeless) of the brave?”

Why compel our teachers to instruct our school chil- dren that this is the land of equal opportunity when they know it is a falsehood?

why not teach our children that there is nothing wrong with the country-that the trouble is with the peo- ple. The people-the millions-have permitted a “sys- tern” that allows a few to gobble up the natural resources, the mills, the factories, the mines, and operate them for their own private profit. These few idle manipulators- this mere handful of capitalists own the natural resources of the nation, the industries and because of that owner- ship the 99,000,OOO must come with hended knee and hare head and beg for an opportunity to earn their daily bread.

They must work on the terms and conditions laid down by the plutocratic profiteers. And what are the terms? Long hours, unsanitary conditions, no safe-guards from injury. Three Imillion children, seven million women forced into industry while millions of able and willing men can’t get work at any price. Hark back to every panic and you will recall that at such times millions of men can’t get work while the women and children work be- cause they can be hired for lower wages.

Under the present system-since no other means have bren provided-people are. justified in bequeathing their property to their children and dependents. However, under a just system, pensions would be provided for all worthy old peopl’e and other dependents. This means that all abled-bodied people would either work or starve and hav- ing worked they would be entitled to a liberal pension in their declining years. Such pensions would be granted as a matter of JUSTICE and not CHARITY.

Mv philosophy is, much done, much received; little done, little received. Nothing done, nothing received with a hole in it. This philosophy is put into actual operation every dav in every home. Every child in all well-regulated homes is required to do useful work about the home or farm, consistent with their age and ability. My idea is to apply this principle to every-day productlon and distribu- tion. Perfectly sound, logical and practical, isn’t it? In the case of invalids and other dependents, these will receive a pension as a matter of simple justice and not charity.

I f the nation adoptes my system of annulling inheri- 8

tances every time a rich geezer died the nation would . automatically acquire his holdings in mill, mine and factory. The process would be gradual and no commotion or eruption could possibly be developed.

While the process of annual inheritances was going on the people should work together co-operatively as a great portion of England, Europe and other countries have already done.

ARE WAGES ADEQUATE? And now what about wages, even in normal times?

Before the war, according to Census Bulletin No. 150, the average skilled mechanic, including’women and children operating machinery, produced $3200 worth of goods per year while their annual wages were but $514.00. Isn’t that the limit? What about conditions now-since the war? Let the Federal authorities make reply. Afier a nation-wide investigation it was found that wages had ad- vanced but half as fast as the cost of living. It was also found that it required $1500 to maintain a family just even with the subsistance point and that it requires $2500 per year to keep an average workingman’s family in proper condition. This figure included comforts only-no luxuries.

ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS. Get ready to hold your breath because facts are strang-

er than fiction. This saane government investigating committee, after

spending millions investigating wages and labor conditions in all parts of the nation, found that the average wage of the head of families was but $900.00. Gee whiz! Think of it. The lowest ambunt to keep a family alive was found to be $1500.00 while the average wage was but $900-$600 less than enough to keep a family from starving. This, in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

This. and this onlv. exvlains whv the workimz man’s wife and children are ‘snatched from”the home, sc&ol and play ground and forced into unsanitary factories, mills and mines there to drudge away their’young lives. These three million children who are grabbed from the school and playground and forced into factories soon become sunken- eyed, pale-faced, emaciated old men and women long be- fore their time. This is a dreadful loss to society-an ir- reparable waste of human life and energy. For 25 years I have fought this battle and I shall not cease my efforts until

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every one of these seven million women are returned to the home and the three million children are back in school or on the play-ground.

Can you think of anvthing worse that the retention of a “system” that forces &lions of children into factories in order to help their daddy earn enough to keep soul and body together? Let every mother reflect as she hugs her baby to her breast that the chances are 99 to 1 that so long as the present profiteering system lasts ‘her darling child will soon be fed into some unhealthful factory there to be ground into profits for an idle parasitic, useless bunch of labor crushers. .

Nor is this all. We read in the daily papers, that be- cause of poverty, expectant mothers are begging for some- one to adopt their unborn child.

For a moment put yourself in this mother’s place. Could you ever again be happy if your child was snatched from you in this way? Capitalism breeds such conditions and therefore capitalism must be abolished and co-oper- ation will abolish it.

To me childhood is sacred and children a part of Divinity-children, the buds and blossoms of humanity, drops of Divinity flowers with souls in them-children that should be wading knee-deep in June-these should be guar- anteed the tenderest care, wholesome food, healthful sur- roundings, delightful playgrounds and the finest education. Safeguarding children pays in a thousand ways. It pays even in dollars and cents.

Consider that from among the millions of children forced into factories at a tender age, there will develop not an inventor, not a thinker, not a musician, not a scholar, not a scientist, not a super-beeing of any kind-all of this for profits. Let Ime say that all the profits and profiteers rolled into one will not balance the account. It is a crime against humanity. is to survive.

Profiteering must be abolished if society

WHAT CAPITALISM HAS ACCOMPLISHED. 1. Having set forth in the preceeding chapter the

many accomplishments of unlimited private ownersh(p let us now consider the damage done by that system.

If this task were undertaken in detail several volumnes would be tilled before we were fairlv started, hence onlv a few of the ?nore glaring wrongs will be mentioned. The

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EDllowing facts are based on census and other government reports.

a. Seventy-two per cent of the A’merican people do not own a home.

b. Crime, prostitution, divorce: and insanity are in- creasing three times faster than our population.

c. Seventy-six percent of the people in Toledo do not own a home.

d. Ninety-eight per cent of the people in New York City do not own a home-the richest ‘city on earth-a city richer than 14 western states combined.

e. Ninety-seven per cent of the business men fail, ac- cording to D-unn & B-radstreet.

f . “Two per cent of the people own 60% of the wealth, 33% own 3570, 65% own 5%. In other words 2% of the people own more wealth than the other 110,000,000 people.”

e. “One orivate individual (Rockefeller) owns more weaGh than I’ve million of those‘listed as ‘phor’ who own on an average of $400.00 (less than enough for modern Iburial.) -

h. During the war 20,000 brand new multimillionaires were added to the already large list.

i. Three million children and seven million women were employed in industry before the war-while men couldn’t get a job nohow because the children and women could he hired cheaper.

j. Cost of maintaining the average family is from $1500 to $2500; average wage $900.00. Wom,en and children are thus forced into factories to help earn enough to live upon.

Census figures show that 83 people out of every hun- dred who die leave no income-producing estates whatso- ever. “Out of every 100 widows only eight are left in good or comfortable circumstances. Forty-seven others are obliged to go to work and thirty-five are left in absolute want.”

k. The rapid increase of prostitution among the young girls in office, store and factory is so alarming and their condition is so desperate that-Roosevelt, in response to popular demand appointed a special commission to investi- gate the condition of girls in our cities. These investi- gators were known as the “HOMES CO1MMISSION.” Sen- ate document No. 644 and their printed report was submit- ted to the President. It was a terrible indictment against the present system. The facts thus gathered were so terri-

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ble, so degrading, and so nauseating as to cause the Senate by resolution to suppress it. I will quote a few lines from Roosevelt’s “Home Commission” at the risk of being locked up or deported.”

PROSTITUTION. Number of cases examined----------------- 2,000 Relonnina to servant class----------------- 931 Dressmakers and seamstresses..-- __-- -__--__ 285 Clerks and office help---------------------- 499 Otherwise employed- _--___-__-- ___- -__--__ 285 Earning $1.00 per week-------------------- 534 Earning only $2.00 per week---------------- 336 Earning only $3.00 per week---------------- 230 Earning only $4.00 per week---------------- 127 Note that as these girls’ WAGES INCREASED fewer

engaged in this traffic of vice. “There are 294 widows in the general list. We believe the principal conclusion to be drawn from the table is that a majority of this class (widows) are driven to a course of vice from the destitu- tion ensuing on her husband’s death. A large number of these are very young and it can scarcely be necessary to re- * peat that any young woman in a state of poverty will be surrounded by temptations which she can with difficulty resist,” Page 223.

PROSTITUTION IN CHICAGO. “Number of prostitutes (at least)------ 10,000 Gross revenues from prostitutions----$20,000,000 Average receipts from each woman---- 2,000

“These prostitutes do not themselves, however, have the benefit of this revenue, much of it is never received by them. They are, in fact, exploited by large business inter- ests. Among these business interests are men who deal in women for the trade.”

Think of Capitalism exploiting everything in sight, even prostitutes.

<‘It is a sad and humiliating admission to make at the opening of the twentieth centurv in one of our greatest cen- ters of cilization in the world, that it is not passion or corrupt inclination, but the force of actual physical want that impels young women along the road to ruin. Immedi- ate contact in tenement houses is a predisposed rause to prostitution.” Page 227.

Co-operation is the principal means through which 12

industrial democracy will be established. When that day arrives the head of every fami!y will receive enou.$h to keep the family in solid comfort. In that day, as children ap- proach maturity,.if thev wish to work it will be in connec- tion with their mdust$ial education and at such work as is suited to their age and development. Child labor will be abolished and if the head of the family dies or is dis- abled the wife will receive ample funds to protect the en- tire family. Let every mother read over and over again this chapter on child labor, prostitution, and then resolve here and now to join the nearest co-operative society and do all her trading with them.

Speaking of the terrible mortality of infants, the report states:

“The infantile mortality returns in the United States alsa indicate that we are dealing with a CLASS MORTAL- LITY. which is highest in communities where women are cmnl6yed in mills; stores and other gainful occupations and in consequence the children fall victims to ignorance and neglect.” Page 185.

Rear in mind while reading the above that about seven million women are engaged in actual work away from home and their families.

Dr. Henry C. Macrtee. of Roosevelt’s commission, further states that in Washington, D. C., aIone. he found 41.243 svnhilitic and similar diseases while in New York City not less than 243.000 cases of syphilitic and kindred private diseases were recorded and treated.”

Recause he dared to expose these deplorable conditions the writer. during his may gears of lecture and research work, recalls his many exneriences, arrests and jailings in all localities where large industries are concentrated, but more especiaIIy where entire towns are Iocated on com- panv property as in Pennsylvania, Colorado and the north- west, etc.

A DICTATORSHIP. I quote fhe following ‘from the Federal Commission on

Industrial Relations: “In all cases where the corporation owns or controls the com-

munity where the workers live, the education of his children. the character and mites of his food. clothing and house, his own actions. speech and ooinions, and in many cases even his religion, are con- trolled and determined. in so far as the interests of the employer make it desirable for him to exercise such control. Such conditions are established and maintained not only through the dictation of all working conditions by the employer, but by his usurpation or control

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of the functions and machinery of political government in such communities.”

The present steel strike is a good illustration of this. The steel trust owns the entire political machinery in the entire chain of steel and coal mining towns through the country. A working man has no more show for a square deal than a rabbit.

Not only now, but for years past, not a single one of the million steel and coal workers dared to attend a Union meeting. This is in America, mark you, not Turkey.

Quoting again from the Commission on Industrial Rela- tions :

“Children are the basis of the state; as they live or die, as they thrive or are ill nourished, as they are intelligent or ignorant, so fares the state. How do the children of the American workers fare?”

“It has been proved by studies here and abroad that there is a direct relation between poverty and the death rate of babies.”

“These investigators shorn that the babies whose fathers earned less than $10.00 per week died during the first year at the appalling rate of 256 per 1000. On the other hand, those whose fathers earned $25.00 per week or more died at the rate of only 84 per 1000, while statistics show that in the homes of ‘the rich the infant death rate is but 32 per 1000.”

“The tremendous significance of these ligrrres will be appreciated when they are considered along with the fact that the average wage is $600.00 less than enough to support a family.”

The recent report of the Federal Child Welfare Bureau informs us that today six million school children are under- fed and under-clothed. Surely; that fact alone should con- demn the present system of profiteering.

, CAUSE OF CRIME. From the report of the Chicago Commission on Crime

I quote the following: “The pressure of economic conditions has an enormous influence

in producing crime. Insanitary housing and working conditions. un- employment, inadequate wages to maintain a human standard of liv- ing. inevitably produce the crush or distorted bodies and minds from which the army of criminals is recruited. The crime problem is not merely a question of police and courts; it leads to the broader Droblem of public sanitation. education. home care, a living wage, and indus- trial democracy.”

The following by John Moody in McClure’s Magazine: “Seven men in Wall St. now control a great share of the funda-

mental industries and natural resources of the United States. Every year they and their successors will control more and more. They dominate, with their allies. and dependants, the national machinery of production and distribution.”

I quote the following from the IJ. S. Dept. of Educa- tion :

“Not more than 1-3 of the children who enter our elementary schools ever flpisb them, and not one-half of them go beyond the 5th grade.” 14

It is hardlv less’surprising to find from this report that only about 1-g of the pupils who go to the high schools remain beyond the second year, and that only about i-6 of those who enter remain to graduate. It all indicates that

the lives of children are bing wasted-being coined into profit for an idle plutocrate oligarchy of multimillionaires.

Prof. John R. Conners of the University of Wisconsin says:

“The overwork of mothers in factories and sweatshops is the very hot-bed of nervousness and drunkness for generations to come. What- cvcr bequeaths a defective or deficient nervous system will predis- pose the inheritor to insobriety, nervousness and insanity.”

Isn’t it high time to take the seven million women and three million children out of the factories? What say you? Co-operation will do the trick..

WOMAN’S WAGES. From the Commission on Industrial Relation I quote

the following: UFrom 2-3 To 3-4 of the seven million women workers in factories, UFrom 2-3 to 3-4 of the seven million women workers in factories,

stores and laundries, and in industrial occupations generally, work at stores and laundries, and in industrial occupations generally, work at wages less than $8.00. Approximately l-5 earn less than $4.00, and wages less than $8.00. Approximately l-5 earn less than $4.00, and nearly one-half less than AA.aa II week.* ncnrly one-half less than $6.00 a week.”

“Last of all nre *he “Last of all are the children, for whose petty addition to the stream nf -“-A”’ stream of production the Nation is paying a heavy toll in ignorance, &f&m,., “_ -.-I -..- ..- -..- r. deformity of body and mind and premature old age. After all does it m.atter much what the children a m.atter much what the children are paid? For all experience has shown that in the end the fs*hor=’ shosvn that in the end the fathers’ wages arc reduced by about the amount that the children c ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ amount that the children earn. This is called the ‘family ni$ge’ “.

“The combined wage of the father, mother and’children, on an “The combined wage of the father, mother and’cliiidretir on an average, is not enough to support a family at a proper standard.” average, is not enough to support a family at a proper standard.”

“This is the condition at one end of the social scale. What is at “This is the condition at one end of the social scale. mat is at the other? the other?

“Mused in millions at the other end of the scale, are fortunes of “Massed in millions at the other end of the scale, are fortunes of a size never before dreamed of, whose very ownera do not know the before dreamed of, whose very ownera do not know the extent nor, without the aid of an intelligent clerk, even the sources extent nor, without the aid of an intelligent clerk, even the sources of their incomes. Inacapable of being spent in any legitimate man- of their incomes. Inacapable of being spent in any legitimate man- ner, these fortunes are burdens, which can only be squandered, hoard- ner, these fortunes are burdens, which can only be squandered, hoard- ed, put into so-called ‘benefactions, which for the most part consti- ed, put into so-called ‘benefactions, which for the most part consti- tute a menace to the State, or put hack into the industrial machine, tute a menace to the State, or put hack into the industrial machine, to pile up ever increasing mountains’ of gold.” to pile up ever increasing mountains’ of gold.”

“Our industrial system makes *it possible for one man, to take “Our industrial system makes *it possible for one man, to take unto himself, and claim as his own a fortune of a billion dollars or unto himself, and claim as his own a fortune of a billion dollars or more, while millions of deserving men, availing themselves of every more, while millions of deserving men, availing themselves of every opportunity for unremitting toil, are only able to secure a grave in opportunity for unremitting toil, are only able to secure a grave in the potters field or else burden their families with an instalhnent the potters field or else burden their families with an instalhnent debt for the cost of burial. debt for the cost of burial.

Speaking of the brutality of police, military Cossacks and courts the Commission on Industrial Relations says:

“In other worlds the courts exalt money above men.” “The tendency also of the same tribunals is to legalize the main-

tenance of armed forces, either by the corporation or the large individ- ual employer, and the virtual levying of war, through the state militia

15

as a private guard for property interests, or as an economic weapon for the purpose of prejudicing the interests of the worker, is abetted and approved while at the same thne vigorously prosecuting and punishing the individual for taking any similar action, ilfdividually or collectively in defence of his person or his family.”

“Thus the man who uses a deadly weapon to protect himself or his family against the aggression of hired thugs has set in motion against him the whole machinery of the State, while the corporstion which enlisted and equipped, and paid a private armed force, formed and used not for the maintenance of peace or the protection of prop- erty but solely as an economic weapon to crush labor, is lauded as a conservator of peace, law and order.”

“Our laws deal strictly and effectively with those who contribute to the delinquency of an individual, but the hire&p of a corpora- tion may debauch a state for their own economic gain and receive only laudation from those who sit in the seats of the mighty.”

Rather hot stuff for a high-br,owed commiission ap- p,px$ed by the Presrdent, eh? But it s the truth every word

I wish to call the reader’s attention to the fact that the above quotations were all taken from governmental and therefore reliable and unprejudiced sources.

I have quoted extensively from the Commission on In- dustrial Relations because its members were chosen by the President from among the nation’s most noted authorities. They were instructed to spare neither time nor money in trying to locate the cause of the wide-spread unrest and the high cost of living. They spent millions of dollars, held special sessions in every nook and corner of the na- tion and called to the witness stand people from all walks of life and their final report covers several volumns which should be read by every well-wisher of his country.

The evidence thus presented proves conclusively that. our present capitalist system like its predecessors, canni- balism, Feudalism and slavery, has fulfilled its mission, has already tarried too long and should be replaced by the next higher step in the. evolution of human society. That next step is co-operation.

The almost universal war in Europe, the general up- risings in nearly all capitalist nations, the ever increasing cost of living, the world-wide prevalence of strikes and the general unrest, all are evidence of the rapid collapse of unlimited profiteering. .

Surely a change is coming. It remains for society to choose either the peaceful or bloody method. Always and everywhere I have advocated the ballot as against the bul- let. No question in all history was ever settled properly by

16

the bullet. Many nations still lack the ballot. In such nations changes cannot be made peacably.

In this country we have the ballot. Let no one at- tempt any other method. The toilers are 99 to the Capi- talist one and if the capitalists rule no one is to blame but the workers themselves.

PROFITEERS CAUGHT WITH THE GOODS ON ‘EM It is well known that all wars offer unusual oppor-

tunities for profiteering. Many prominent and devoted friends of democracy con-

tend that profiteering during the recent war has eclipsed all former lootings.

The nation was startled when ex-Secretary of the Treasury stated that the coal barons made as high as 2000% profit. Many were skeptical.

I f anybody in the U. S. is in a position to know defin- itely and exactly what the profits of the various corpora- tions really are, McAdoo is that person. As Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, corporations were compelled by law to file their earnings with him.

It now turns out that McAdoo’s statements were very conservative.

Comes now Basil M. Manlev *former chainman of the War Labor Board and also a me”mber of the Industrial Re- lations Committee with startling facts gathered from the Treasury records themselves.

The following is an excerpt from a recent address de- livered by Manly before a large audience in N. Y. City:

“He. McAdoo should have told them that the prollti ranged 8s high as 7,856 per cent. And in the steel mills. one eon- tern’s pro%ts, as submitted to the Treasury Department. was the tremendous one of 290,999 per cent. “While the people were exerting their energies in producing

material for the successful prosecution of the war, and while others wrre dying on foreign battlefields. the leading industries of the country were protlteering upon a scale almost unbelievable if their own facts and fignres had not been submitted to the United Sates Treasury Deparment, tlgures which were partially suppressed by the United States Senate.

genate Tries to Suppress Reports. “When a move was made to publish the 1917 income tax report

submitted to the Treasury Deaartment efforts were made to Irill’ the motion. and after a hard fight it was agreed that onlr two copies for each senator were to be printed. I managed to obtain one of

. these reports and the figures given there are such as will astound the American people. -

“Attorney General Palmer says that there is great diflkulty in

17

securing evidence of profiteering. Why doesn’t he go across the street to the Treasury Department and start his investigation with the virtual confessions of protiteerhlg contained in the income and excess profits tax returns? One of the reasons is that Attorney Gen- cral Palmer is so busy hunting evidence on which to deport ‘reds’ and ‘near reds’ that he has no thne for the proftteers.”

Basil Manly’s startling revelations contained in his speech follow: “When the coal controversy was at its height former Secretary

of the Treasury McAdoo startled the nation by declaring that in 1917 the operators made shocking and indefensible profits on bituminous coal. He stated that their income tax returns revealed that they were making earnings on their capital stock ranging from 15 per cent to 2,000 per cent and that earnings of from 100 per cent to 300 per cent on capital stock were not uncommon.

McAdoo drew his facts regarding the profits of coal from-Senate docunient No. 259, a report of the Secretary of the Treasury Depart- ment relative to profiteering.

“In the publication of this report every effort was made to con- ceal from the reader all facts which would reveal the criminal profit- eering of the great corporations and trusts.

Insidious Suppression. “This report contains 388 pages, but in the first 360 pages you will

but find a single corporation with more than $lO,OOO,OOO capitalization and very few with more than a few hundred thousand. Was it an acci- dent that all the big corporations nerr held back while the data on more than 30.009 small companies was compiled and sent to thr printer?

“Some question might also be raised why this report does not include :I sinirle one of the big copper companies which in 1916 and 1917 made such stupendous proftts, and why other notorious protttecrs were omitted.

“Bat, patting all this aside, an examination of the re- port shows that some of the coal operators made as high as 7,856 per cent. profit. The fact is that nearly half of the coal companies, 185 out of 404, actually earned profits on their cap- ital stock ranging from 100 per cent. to 7,856 per cent. The prices paid by the American people for their coal in 1917 were so high that nearly half of the mines reported were paid profits equal to their entire capital stock. and at least one of the mines was paid profits equal to 78 times its capitalization! “In 1917 the net income of the 404 coal companies reported was

$78.000.000, or nearly half of their total capital stock of $175,000.000 and this is 2-3 water.

‘These figures are based upon the original returns of the com- panies. and take no account whatever of millions of dollars of tax evasions which wwe revealed by the Internal Revenue Rureau in auditing returns. It is absolulely certain that in the last three vrars the American people have paid in net profits every dollar’s worth of stock of the coal companies.

Capitalist Hypocrisy. “These are the gentlemen who wrapped the American flag aronnd

themselves and denounced RR Rolshevists the coal miners who asked for an increase in wages sufficient to enable them to Dav for the in- creased cost of living caused by such profiteers as these.

“But while the coal operators were making ornfits ranginn as high as 7,856 wr cent. on their capital stock. the meat packers were making prottts ranging as high as 4,244 per

18

cent, eaaners of fruits and vegetables 2.032 per cent., woolen mills 1,770 per cent., furniture manufacturers 3,295 per cent., clothing and dry goods stores 9,926 per cent., and, to cap the climax, steel.mills ranging as high as 290,999 per cent. “A proilt of 290,999 per cent seems incredible, but these are the-’

facts. ‘rhis steel company, according to the Treasury report, had a capital stock of $5,000 and in 1917 reported to the Treasury Depart- ment a net income of $14,549,952. After paying its excess proilt tax, its net income still amounted to 212,584 per cent on its capital stock! This steel company did not stand entirely alone. There is another corporation reported on the same page as earning 20,180 per cent on its capital stock.

“Further in this treasury report is a report of a steel company with a capital stock of $868,593,600. There is only one corporation in the world with that amount of capital stock-the United States Steel Corporation. I looked to see what income it had reported to the Treasury Department in 1917 and the amount recorded was $155,- 864,365 before the deduction of income and excess profits taxes.

“The income reported by the corporation, however, in its pub- lished report before the deduction of taxes was $478,204,342. Com- paring these two sets of ilgnres it looked like about $323,000,000 of the Steel Corporation’s income was being concealed.

Denied Permission to See Figures. “It did not seem possible, so I went to the Treasury and asked

permission to see the return of the United States Steel Corporation so that the facts might be veriiied. Access to veriffs these facts was denied me.

“So far as the income and excess profits tax are concerned, the Treasury Department is an impenetrable veil through which no citi- zen is permitted to see.

U. S. Senator Capper states that the net earnings of the Steel Trust was one billion, three hundred million. He also states that the wool in a $100 suit of clothes costs $7.37.

“In the industries engaged and manufacturing the necessities of life, there was not a single one which made less than 300 per cent or more on its capital stock.

“Out of 506 flour mills, 84 reported net profits of over 100 per cent on their capital stock and one company reported 2,623 per cent. The bread and bakery companies were not so fortunate, but out of 217 of them 34 made more than 100 per cent on their capital stock.

“You have read advertisements in the newspapers costing millions of dollars, which tell you how little profit is made by the meat packers, but the Treasury Department’s reports show that out of 123 meat ‘packers 30 or one out of every four, made more than 100 per cent profit on their capital stock. One of these companies made the nice little profit of 4,2$4 pe*p cent oqits capitol stock in 1917. 3

“The Treasury Department reports give the returns of 45 woolen mills, one of which earned 1,770 per cent on its capital stock. Out of the 45 woolen mills, 17 reported proilts of more than 100 per cent on their capital stock.

* * 3 * * *

“It must not be imagined that manufacturers were the only ones who reaped enormous proilts during the war. The report of the

19

Treasury Department shows 2,068 clothing and dry goods stores, one of which earned 9,826 per cent on its capital stock and 26 earned more than 100 per cent. There are 577 furniture stores reported, of which 76, nearly 15 per cent, earned more than 100 per cent on capital stock, and one earned 781 per cent.

Lo, the Poor Contractors.

“We have heard a great deal about the high cost of building in the last few years. In nearly every case an attempt is made to attribute the high cost to the wages paid building labor, but this report shows that out of 809 contractors and construction companies, 154 earned profits of over 100 per cent on their capital stock, and one of them earned 390 per cent, or nearly four tbnes its total capital iu a single year.

“In conclusion, let me say that I have no use for any man or set \ of men who, in a republic, seek to overthrow the government by force or violence, but I know, and every man and woman knows, that one conscienceless protlteermg corporation does more to destroy and overthrow this government which we love than any thousand anar- chists who were ever born.”

Here are the cold, hare facts, taken direct from the sworn statements of the profiteers themselves by the na- tion’s leading authority.

As Manly has stated the profits of the big corporations were mostly concealed. None of these profiteers would steal chickens, but they do cheat Uncle Sam out of hun-

* dreds of millions in taxes. What the profits really are we can only conjecture. This we do know, that they were so large that they dare not be revealed to the common people.

We also know that 22 thousand new millionaires were hatched out from these profits and doubtless half of them never reported the facts.

During this whole war period of profiteering the work- ers were called pro-Germans if they dare to ask for living wages.

During the war this profiteering was so brazen that while wages advanced 50 per cent, living expenses advanced 100 per cent.

The only solution the profiteers offer was expressed the other-day by their chief spokesman, Charles M: Schwab, ;hz ,,advlsed labor “to work harder and keep Its mouth

But the man above all men who should have pro- tected the people from this outrageous profiteering was Food Director Hoover, because he was in possession of all the facts. Now the profiteers have the monumental gall to boom him for president.

This entire war profiteering proves anew that this is a government of, by and for the profiteers.

20

A REIGN OF TERROR. And now that the war is over and labor seeks only

partial justice they are called anarchists, I. W. W’s. and Bolshevists. They are not allowed their constitutional right to peaceably assemble and discuss their grievances.

The foreign born workers are deported and their fam- ilies are left to starve or depend on charity.

In everv industrial section of the nation. neaceful and lawful assemblies of the workers are swooped down upon by police, luskers, militia, legioners, profiteers and ex- soldiers in the nav of the orofiteers. mounted Cossacks and other hired thugs”.

These outrages are encouraged by the higher-ups and riven due aublicitv bv the mess.

A reign of terrorism &as been inaugurated that puts to shame the atrocities committed bv the old Czars of Bussia.

In this whole fight to kill off all free speech, fre’e assem- blage, honest criticim and the labor movement as a whole, the workers have stood the test splendidly.

Labor well understands that the profiteers are striving to provoke an uprising. This would offer an excuse to execute all men who dare express an honest opinion as to needed reforms, squelch all investigation of the looters and assure an unmolsted continuance of ‘profiteering.

Bills are now pending in Congress to put still more teeth in the War-time espionage law and make it a peace- time law. And mark you, all this time we were fighting to make the world safe for democracy and a tit place to live in.

Let labor beware of the many hired spies within their own ranks. For so much “per” they advocate violence. Don’t nibble at that poisonous bait.

A CAPITALIST PLOT. It is now openly charged that “big business” promoted

and financed the communist party wrote its. platform ad- vocating violence, all for the purpose of having an excuse to start a reign of terror in the U. S.

Let labor continue to organize and educate the workers until all workers are within the fold of unionism. Let labor make full use of the ballot and above all let them follow the example of their European brothers in estab- lishing co-operative societies.

English co-operatives are the largest single force for 21

democracy in the British Empire. Already they own and control one-third of the business of England and it is freely predicted that they will govern England at the next election.

In Russia as soon as the serfs were freed. which was over a half century ago, they began to form ‘co-operative societies to farm the soil. The co-onerative idea was so successful that it soon spread to the cities and the late Czar turned over the job of producing and distributing food and clothing to the co-operatives who now number 100 million people. Finally when the Czar was over- thrown the change from, private to collective ownership of industry was an easy matter because the co-operatives were alreadv in oossession and were backed UD bv vears of successful excerience.

& ” I

Make no mistake about it the Russian co-operatives are here to stay and the co-operatives of other nations are here t,o stay and increase. In fact they are growing ten times faster than population.

Co-operation is the peaceful, democratic m’ethod of progress and all hell can’t stop it. I f the peaceful method of co-operation be crushed, then there is no longer any hope in the world for democracy.

Co-operation seeks to establish industrial democracy by legal and peaceful methods.

The whole philosophy of co-operation is based on the idea that it is easier and better to work with your fellow man than against him. United we stand, divided we fall, is their slogan.

WASTEFUL DISTRIBUTION In the preceeding chapter Mr. Manly graphically points

out the imlmsense profits in the manufacture of commodities and backs up his figures by sworn statements of the protlt- eers themselves as submitted to the U. S. Treasury.

Since all wealth is created by applying mental and physical labor to raw material these billions of profit were all made bv the wage earners-the men. women and chil- dren engaged in theshops and factories of this nation.-

All of the hundreds of laborious steps and processes of manufacturing from the raw materiai in mine, forest, field and factory and their transportation to the industry where they are fashioned into a hundred and one useful and ornafmental commodities are all done by 30 million men, women and children. 22

By all moral law and common horse sense these com- modities should belong to these millions of toilers whose mental and physical sweat produced them. But such is not the case.

Under the present capitaist profiteering system the work’ers are not permitted to take home with them the commodities they make each day. Instead the goods are left with the factory owner and the workers are paid a wage.

This wage is less than the value created by the workers. The difference beween what the workers create and what they receive in wages is profit.

The stock and bond holders who are idlers and often live in foreign countries own the industries and they hire the board of directors, the president, managers, superin- tendents and foremen, pay them a salary-next the ex- pense of raw material, wear and tear of machinery and other incidentals are taken out and the rest is profit.

In economics this is known as the manufacturer’s profit and is a thing separate and distinct from the profits made by the jobber, wholesaler, retailer, agents, etc. In other words, the billions of profits discussed by Manly are manufacturer’s profits and not distributor’s pollts.

Cost of Retailing The cost of distribution is greater than the manufac-

turing cost. In other words, it costs more to get the goods from

the factory to the consumer’s home than it does to manu- facture them in the first place. To state it in still another way, the entire process of growing the crops, digging the minerals from the mine, drilling the oil wells and refining the oil and passing hundreds of raw materials through the hundred and one intricate processes incurred in manu- factuing costs the final consumer less than the mere distri- bution of the commodities from the factory door to the kitchen door. .

By ‘common consent this is fully and freely admitted. Some years ago when Ford’s auto was retailing at

$600, a train load of autos was wrecked and Henry sued the company for damages. The Railroad company proved in court that Ford’s auto cost but $87.50. Ford admitted that they cost but $125 and finally recovered that amount according to press reports. In other words it cost but

23

$125 to manufacture a Ford auto while it cost $475 to take it from the factory to the consumer.

In this connection let me submit the opinions of the uation’s experts regarding cost of distribution :

“It is no secret that the present methods of selling and.distrihu- tion of anything are more costly than production.-Grocers Magazine.

“In these figures (figures shqwing that distribution costs more than production) there country has ever seen

is*thz bTs,s for the greatest reform that tlus I have contended for years that

some day that this task must be accomplished. It is one of today’s IA0 jobs.“-B. F. Yoknm.

0 “It costs more to distribute “UP food products than it does to produce the same. Why should this he? Why, for example, should the farmers and fruit growers of this nation receive but 31 per cent of what the consumer pays? Why should the distributor get 69 per cent of what the farmer produces?--F. E. Ladd, Food Commissioner off North Dakota.

“Transportation is now such that a year’s supply of meat and bread can be moved 1,000 miles from the western prairie to the pastern workshops at the mca~nre of cost of a single day’s wage of a mechanic in Massachusetts.“-Edward Atkinson in “Distribution Of Products.”

THOS. A. EDISON. Concerning the wastes of distribution Thos. A. Edison

says: “Selling and distribution are simply machines for getting pro-

ducts to c”nsumcr. And like all machines they can be improved with great resulting economy.

“But it is the plain truth that these machines for distribution have made the least progress of all machines.

“They are the same in many instances that they were 50 and 60 years ago. They are hnitations of each other and manufacturers fol- low each other like sheep in the matter of selling and distribution, the very same manufacturers, oftimes, who are tremendously keen to secure the benefits of new invention in their factories.

“As a result selling cost is tremendously high--manufacturing cost is often small beside it.

Now, why not put more inventive genius to work upon the big nrohlem of distrihutlon? At this time of general lamentation over high prices it is particularly desirable. The average selling machine has become unwieldy and ancient. Did you ever see the Jackqnard loom? It is marvelous. how simply and perfectly it performs com- plicated weaving of patterns. That perfect the selling machine should be-getting goods quickly, economically and satisfactorily to those who want them.“-Th”s. A. Edison.

“To the workin classes. the small retail trnrlrr often is half R friend in need, half a swindler and a parasite. There is opportunity for a declaration of independence.“-Prof. F. W. Taussig.

“Co-operation is heaven and lack of co-operation is hell; co- operation is life, and the lack off co-operation is death.“-Wm. Morris.

“This is the time for America to correct her unoardonable fault of wastefuflness and extravagance in production and distribution.“- Woodrow Wilson.

The nresent capitalistic profiteering system of doing business is the most inconsistent thing that can be imagin-

24

etl. On one hand they preach to us to be thrifty, purchase only necessities and save at every turn.

At the same time they pay billions of dollars for ad- vertising and more billions for agents and solicitors who urge us to buy against our better judgment. As a result of this, millions of people are hot-aired into buying what they don’t need and often things they can’t use.

Verily the upholders of the present wasteful system are inronsistent fools.

GLADSTONE . ..In connection with the wonderful achievements of the

Brltlsh co-operatives Gladstone was moved to say: “There has not been a better thing done in this country, in my opinion, than the establishment of co-operation.”

England’s noted economist, Prof. Marshall says that he regards co-operation as “unique among the achievements that have been wrought in the history of the world.”

Volumes could be filled with quotations from world- famous experts on the subject of wastefulness, both in pro- duction and distribution.

The tremendous waste of natural resources and human energy in getting commodities from factory to consumer is so great that it is almost beyond commutation.

TIhe reader is reminded of-this neediess expense every time he gazes into the street where he will see in the course of a few hdurs a dozen grocery wagons chasing up and down the highways, each delivering a package here and another there at one or two houses in the block and finally chasing all over the city before the load is finally delivered. Next will be seen a dozen butcher wagons chasing all over God’s earth deivering a sausage here, a pound of steak there and a short rib a mile or two awav. driving Drobablv ten or fifteen miles to deliver what should have heen de- livered in one or two city blocks. At the same time will be seen a dozen laundry wagons, a dozen bakery wagons, etc., each needlessly wearing out an expensive delivery wagon or auto and wastihg human energy.

The jobber, the wholesaler and other middlemen are chasing all over, consuming without producing because of their expensive buildings and offices, their traveling men, agents, collectors and attorneys, their bad debts, advertis- ing and their long chain of obsolete customs and methods.

Don’t think you are not paying for all this because 25

these items are not specifically mentioned in your unonthly bills. They are right here, Johnny on the spot, just the same and you, the consumer, foot the whole bill.

Once again remember that on an average 60 cents out of every $1 is paid for the one item of disti-ibution. Let that tremendous fact ,sink into your conscience just as it already sinks into your pay envelope.

IN A NUTSHELL Summin9 UD we find: First-&at *the workers receive in wages but one-

sixth of what they produce. (See U. S. Bulletin 150). Second-He must pay middlemen 60 cents out of each

dollar for the privilege of delivering it from the factory and field to his door.

These are the cold, bare facts based on official figures and can not be denied.

This is the present capitalist profiteering system that the captains of industry, the princes of privilege and the kings of finance tell us can’t be improved upon, and that it must be maintained at all hazards.

Undoubtedly it does look good to those who have be- come millionaires through this profiteering system but tg the rest of us-the hundreds of millions of toilers-it looks like sin.

I guarantee that if a group of eighth grade pupils were given the problem of production and distribution they could improve the present system so much that within a year there would be no comparison.

And right here is where co-operation functions with wonderful effectiveness. In one stroke co-operation de- livers the goods direct froan the field, factory and mine to the consumer.

Co-operation eliminates the long list of useless middle- . men and parasites.

Co-operation puts these useless middlemen into the arena of production. Production would thus be doubled.

Everybody that worked would have plenty or at least tlie full net product of his toil. It would put into actual operation this principle: Much done, much received; little (lone, little received; nothmg done, nothing received with a hole in it. IMPROVED METHODS.

One centrally located co-operative grocery store could easily take the place of a dozen or more retail groceries of the present sort. 26

Under complete and perfected co-operation stores would #be located no nearer to each other than schools are now located, or perhaps no oftener than sub post offices t are now located. Distribution could be effected on much the same plan as mail carriers now distribute mail. A co- operative delivery wagon could start out from a given sub- station on a ,niven route and deliver not only groceries but all manner of merchandise from house to house. Co-oper- ative catalogues, similar to mail order catalogues would be in every home from which goods could be ordered by number.

A few beautiful and well lighted display palaces could be maintained where people could inspect and select such articles as they desired, especially new designs, materials and aualities.

All political economists and thinkers and up-to-date business men realize that it is coming to this. Mail order houses are already a part of this phn’ and they seek to displace all retail stores.

It is now simply a question of whether the workers in America will follow the successful exoerienre of their brother co-operatives in Europe and other countries or whether thev will allow the chain store and the mail order houses to distribute for them. Finally they will all com- bine and furnish you adulterated food and‘ shoddy goods at their own price.

THE TOLEDO CO-OPERATIVE STORES Co. The Toledo Co-operative Stores Co. is following the

well known, fully demonstrated and, successful English Hochdale plan of co-operation.

First a store, then a series of stores, then 3 wholesale, a cold storage plant, market buildings, bakeries, laundries, slaughter houses, coal yards, etc.; etc.

In the mean time motor truck routes will daily radiate in every direction out of Toledo, hauling out to our rural co-operative brothers, city commodities and returning with fresh eggs, pure meat, wholesome poultry and nour- ishing fruits, vegetables, etc., etc.

During the war Uncle Sam actually established 105 just such routes and made $40,267 per route, clear profit, while at the same time the consumer saved from 30 to 70 per cent. (*For full account see Postmaster General’s Report, Fiscal year ‘ending June 1, 1918.)

27 -. -.

Since the profiteers are preventing Uncle Sam from continuing this service with his 50,000 idlle trucks the co- operatives will do this for themselves.

When the consumer has thus been organized, then and then only will co-operators enter the field of produc- tion because their market-their buyers, will already bC organized to consume the articles as fast as produced and manufactured.

Co-operative manufacturing can be successfully un- dertaken only after the workers have been organized and educated to patronize their own industries.

The next logical step is the acquisition of the sources of raw material for manufacturing, the land, the mines, etc.

In the meantime all efforts will be made to nationalize the transportation and communication systems.

When this is finally done, co-operation will be in full bloom and industrial democracy will be an accomplished fact.

Want, and fear of want, will forever be abolished. Wars will be a thing of the past and the brotherhood of man, the fatherhood of God will be an actual condition.

ADULTERATED FOODS AND SHORT WEIGHTS. Every investigation by city, state and Federal official

food inspectors proves conclusrvely that more rotten and diseased meat and other adulterated and impure foods are consumed by the American people than ever before. New devices for short weighing and measuring are being un- earthed daily.

One of America’s highest authorities states that at least 3 million American people are made seriously ill and many deaths result from impure and adrulterated foods. ’

Gaston G. Netter, president of The International Pure Food Association says :

“If you took all the so-called pure food in .\rnerican cities today sod put it in a big tent down in Texas, I would be compelled to throw awav 40 per cent. The people #are being daily poisoned by thousands of tons of poisoned foods labeled absolutely pore.‘ I buy it and test it every day and I know.”

Think of it, 40 per cent of our food adulterated and poisoned.

The New York Globe states that spoiled and diseased meats are being sold by the carload every day in New York City. The same is true everywhere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 28

“It is only necessary to ask a few questions as to the progress of any article of CO~~CTCC from the fields where they grew to our houses. to become aware that we eat and drink poisoned and adul- terated foods and wear perjury and fraud in a hundred commod- ities.”

When that great humanitarian and noted author Upton Sinclair wrote his famous hook “The Jungle” he aimed at the people’s head and intellects hut hit them square in the stomach. The aim of “The Jungle” was to expose the “Riq Five” Packers’ (Armour, Swift, et al.,) practice of selling condemned meat to the public as A-i meat.

This exposure caused such a sensation and revulsion throughout the nation that the late Roosevelt was com- pelled to sit up and take notice. Accordingly Roosevelt appointed a commission which proved all of Sinclair’s charges.

The writer and several food experts from two leading universities made inspections of several leading packing establishments in Chicago. Kansas Citv and Omaha and after innumerable dif&lties found that not a pound of rondemnedm meat was ever destroyed. It was sold under A-l labels as 100 per cent pure meat.

The beef and food trusts enlarge upon the fact that every uound of meat and food must pass Federal inspec- tion. This guarantees nothing since, in numerous congres- sional investigators and court trials it was clearly shown that these “insoectors?“,were receiving more “on the side” from the beef barons than Uncle Sam paid them.

The mail order houses overcome the various state pure food laws because they are inter-state shippers and are protected by federal law. Therefore everv consumer that values good health and pure food should be on his guard against mail order houses when it comes to food products.

THE CALDER LAW. To overcome the effort of the several states.in prohibit-

ing impure food being sold in their respective states the food trust and the beef barons have introduced into Congress the Calder “Uniformity” bill.

In a public statement attacking this “Uniformity” bill State Food Commissioner savs:

“Consumptive and putrid be&f, trichena pork. rotten eggs and bleached flour, watered sausage. watered butter and adulterated and diseased foods of all kinds will be dumped into the markets and sold with impunity if the U. S. Senate passes the Calder Bill. This bill would nullify all the state and mnnicipal laws relating to foods

39 ,‘”

and drugs and nrould constitute a menace to public health. It’s provisions make it impossible for the official of any state, city or municipality from making any effort to protect tbe people from impure food.

Of course the food profiteer contends that the Calder bill is a step forward. Fine pretense, this! Since when did the reader see a profiteer lobby for laws to protect the people?

Have a care. Mr. and Mrs. Consumer! This bill popu- larizes inferiority, destrovs individuality, smothers truth and strangles progress. It ends the effort of such states as are reaching out, for cleaner. better and more whole- some food by making it illegal for any state food official to interfere with any food and meat product now winked at or otherwise tolerated by the lax regulations of the U. S. Bureau of Chemistrv.

Even now the Federal laws permit the food trust to load his sausages and bologna with fillers composed of starch and water and both sell at meat m-ices and it has legalized chemically treated molasses, chemically treated dried fruits and chemically treated beverages, all of which are poisonous. OFFICIAL TESTIMONY.

Just what this balder bill will do for the food trust may be judged by the fact that when Dr. Harvey Wiley was at the head of the Federal Pure Food Chemical Dept., and when he insisted on pure foods the profiteers engineered his dismissal, Thus in one stroke the food profiteers re- move every obstacle and they are now free to force the people to eat impure, diseased and rotten foods.

While in office Dr. Wiley in the Chemical Department spent $1.946,784.r)0 in preparing evidence against ‘food frauds and not one of these cases was ever allowed to come to trial. They were never so much as reported to the Federal Department of Justice. We have the Beef Barons to thank for. that. hat.

Tt cost the taxpavers $515.00 to collect the evidence in e in the Bureau of Chemistry for each one of the 6,206 cases ases that were suppressed. At that rate the people have a -ate the people have a

.- real fine juicy chance to get pure food when all the state itate ‘and citv food d’epartments are superceded by this pro- !d by this pro- posed Cald’er hill. )ill.

Billions of dollars were made by the food trusts during dollars were made by the food trusts during the war through their hundreds of subsidiaries often doing rh their hundreds of subsidiaries often doing

’ business under separate names. 30

rc

Drunk with this easy war prolit they seek to continue their graft with a neatly camouflaged Federal law-the Calder-bill.

The chain stores are a part of this scheme. Look over the shelves of any of these trust chain of grocery stores and you will find that the trust makes its own brand. These may for a time be as good as the best but the moment they have ruined and eliminated competing grocers, look out for adulterated and poisoned food and rotten meats on a gigantic scale. Also look out for still higher prices. This chain story proposition is not a theory t’s a fact. They are here now and increasing rapidly. They are a part of the food trust under an assumed name.

THE SOLUTION. How to meet this tremendously serious situation is

of utmost imnortance to the working class. The problem can easily be solve&if only the workers

will adopt the tactics of millions of workers in all the leading nations of the earth.

In-all foreign countries the people have joined hands and started co-operative stores and industries. That’s the solution.

In Europe the manufacturers, bankers and profiteers united forces and made a determined effort to crush’ the co-opeatives but in spite of this they are growing ten times faster than population.

That’s the solution. Years of experience fully proves that co-operation is the one thing the profiteers can’t crush. Naturally the press largely owned or controlled by the profiteers don’t wal t you to Know these facts. I f you did their profiteering days would be numbered.

Co-operation in one stroke solves the high cost of living and the pure food problem!

Since under co-operation the workers make the foods themselves and sell to,themselves for u&e and not for profit they certainly would not gain anything by nsing inipure foods. If I had a G-year-old that couldn’t understand that, I’d trade it for a monkey.

In addition. under co-oneration, all Droduee and manu- facture is conducted in sanitary .factbries under union conditions. Co-operatives invariably pay better wages than private ,concerns.

In short, production and distribution under co-epera- 31

tion is of, by and for the workers themselves and they can have just what thev want and we know that co-ouerators always insist on short hours, healthful conditions for labor and the very best of food and other commodities.

Therefore get in touch with the nearest co-operative society and do your part to make the world a better and happier place to live in.

It is the evolutionary, peaceful, permanent and lawful method of transferring society out of our present chaos with which profiteering has surrounded us. Co-operation will usher us into the coming society-Industrial Democ- racy. All Hail the New Day.

DR. WILEY. Dr. Wiley says:

“The desire for- profit is the sole motive for adulteration and debasement. If that principle could be eliminated from the food trade, all adulteration and debasement would naturally cease.”

That settles it because co-operation removes the cause --Drotlt.

Under co-operation, food and other commodities are made for use and not moth. Therefore thev would be pure and wholesome. -

THERE IS ENOUGH FOR ALL AND TO SPARE Many people entertain the notion that there never can

be enough food, clothing and shelter for all, and, therefore we will always have among us a few very rich, and mil- lions very poor. This is a false notion as we shall quickly see upon investigation. From the Federal Agricultural. Dept., from the Labor Dept., from the Income Tax Deptf, and from the Census we learn of our wonderul natural resources and our ability to convert these into useful commodities. We .have a magnificent stretch of rich soil extending from ocean to ooean and from lake to gulf. The Department of Agriculture informs us that the Mississippi Valley alone, under scientific culture, could easily produce enough food for 500 million people. They also inform us that if our idle swamp land were drained and utilized it would feed 300 million people. In the same way millions of people could be supported if the balance of our arid lands were irrigated.

In addition our present farms are not’poducing one- fourth of their possibilities. Scientific culture has fully demonstrated this fact.

Get a copy of “Three Acres and Liberty,” or a copy of 32

Price Kopolkin’s “Field, Factory and Workshop” and be convinced that the U. S. alone is fully capable of feeding clothing and sheltering the entire population of the world. This is not theory. Actual production of crops have demon- strated it. Our wonderful capacity to produce food, shelter and other commodities was well illustrated during the war when we withdrew five million of our best men from production and put them into the consuming and killing business. Still we were able to feed and clothe ourselves and half of Europe. This proves beyond a doubt that we can produce in abundance for all.

This can never be accomplished however, so long as a few rich men’ are allowed to hold millions of acres of fertile land out of use for speculative purposes or operate industries for the profit of a few. In every country on earth capitalism has reduced the people to owners, hire- lings and paupers-and a pauper is but a hireling unhired.

Step into any modern industrial plant and witness the wonderful ability to produce quickly all the necessities of life. Step inside Henry Ford’s auto plant and see them assemble an entire auto on a moving bench belt in a few minutes. A Ford tractor is assembled in the same rapid way.

Production engineers throughout the U. S. within a few years have doubled and quadrupled manufacturing accomplishments.

TWENTY .TO ONE. Government statistics show that with modern machines

we can produce 20 times as much per person as we could in the davs of hand tools and it stands to reason that each individual should have 20 times as much. And now why doesn’t he have 20 times as much? All manner of an- swers are given daily from platform and pulpit; in news- paper and magazine and yet not one out of a hundred hit the nail squarely on the head. Here’s the real reason:

IT IS BECALJSEGOODSAREMANUFACTUREDFOR PROFIT AND NOT FOR USE! GET THAT?

Here is how the gouge is taken out of the millions xvv;;; sweat and toil applied to raw material produce all

Becausethe workers do not own and have no voice in the management of production and distribution, when they have manufactured an article it is left in the factorv and

33

the worker is handed a wage. Before the war the average worker received $516.00 for his year’s work while he produced $3,200. The rest was not clear profit because of the raw material, wear and tear of machinery, up-keep, oerhead, etc., etc. While we do not know what this net profit is in each individual case every school child does know that this profit made Rockefeller a multi-billionaire with an unearned income of 150 million a vear: it made a 500 Ihillion dollar geezer of the late Andy -Carnegie; it made a 400 million iMorgan, a 300 million dollar Warehaus- er (lumber king) ; it made .a 200 million Frick and it made 35,000 multimillionaires all told and 20 thousand brand new ones during the war alone. That much we do know from Income Tax reports. Only God knows how many billions were never reported to the Income Tax authorities.

Thai, mark you, is but one gouge taken out of the toil- ers; it is the manufacturing gouge and it is not the largest gouge by far.

THE REAL GOUGE. The distribution gouge is the real gouge. Here is

where the profiteers get in their fine Italian hand. A commodity that leaves the factory gate at a cost of

ten cents often costs the ultimate consumer sixy cents to a dollar. A more wasteful, idiotic, sinful and shameful svsteme of distribution could not be devised.

The jobber buys his wares from the factory. The jobber maintains an office, employs agents and solicitors who sell to the wholesaler. The wholesaler maintains an expensive offlice and a large force of office help, clerks and laborers; he also employs agents and salesmen who sell to the retailers. The retailer also maintains an elaborate office force and employs clerks and salesmen who try to sell you what you don’t want and often something you can’t use. Millions and billions of dollars are paid out in advertising in the papers and magazines, bill boards and hand bills, -theatres, moving picture screens, etc. This - _ foolish and unnecessary thing of advertising has gone on to such an extent that it is no longer possible to supply the paper, and the timber used in making the paper is al.most exhausted. Can you beat it for sheer madness?

Well this whole idiotic system of distribution costs the people of the U. S. about 20 billion per year. Is it any wonder that after wasting 20 billion in distribution and allowing the profiteers to add another; 20 Ibillion to their

34

fortunes each vear there isn’t enough left for the toiler to properly feed,” clothe and shelter ‘his family? Is it any wonder that the Federal Child Labor Dept. finds upon careful investigation that six million school children are under nourished and under clothed?

Do you mean to tell me that such a foolish and waste- ful system is necessary; that nothing better can be sug- gested? Forget it! Consider also that a $10.00 pair of shoes can. be manufactured by machinery in less than an hour. Yet a poor girl must work a week or two to buy that same pair of shoes.

A yard of the finest woolen can be woven in a modern loom bv a child while you are walking a few blocks, yet that ch’ild must pay five, ten and even fifteen dollars for that same cloth.

Government Labor-Time, Cost-statistics show about the same proportion of gouging all down the list of manu- factured Eommoditi’esr

In a 25-year campaign of lecturing and writing I have never once blamed the plutocrats or the profiteers be- cause every thinker and student of economics knows it is not the individual’s fault. It is solelv the fault of the - “system of private ownership.” The - “system” compels every person on ‘earth to either ride or be ridden; to either gouge or be gouged and just so long as that infernal system lasts I take my hat off to the man who refuses to be ridden and becomes a rider. I take my hat off to the man who refuses to be gouged and prefers to do the goug- ing.

“The whole “system” is dead wrong because it forces men to do things which they know in their own heart are entirely wrong. Let any big-hearted individual undertake to practice the Gold’en Rule in the midst of this hellish com- petitive system and he will go bankrupt ker plunk in jig time. The individual can not get out of this system alone. It is utterly and absolutely impossible. .Tbe remedy must be applied by society as a whole. The people must all work in harmony in trying to solve this great problem of production and distribution.

Ballots vs. Bullets. Happily we have a peaceful means at hand-the ballot.

I.ct neither side to this controversy dare use the bullet. It settles nothing permanently. The bullet is the unthink- ing way; the ballot is the thinking, humane and permanent way. 35

RUMAN NATURE. I have often been reminded that it is but “human na-

lure” to get all pou can and that the millionaires are there- fore justified with their swag. It is also human nature for labor to want the full net product of its toil and if they got that they wouldn’t be accepting $514.00 out of every $3,200 produced. And furthermore, if labor got all of its net nroduct there wouldn’t be anvthing left for idle million- &es and they. would have to -go to” work like the rest of us and since thev always nraise labor as b’eing L1,honoralble” let them practice what-they preach and go to-work.

The demands of labor are just. From many sources including Eovernment statistics. we know that labor is receiving & an average of $606 less than proper subsist- ence wages. It is unthinkable that this can continue l.ong.

Again, I repeat that capital is necessary, but capitalists are useless. The public schools and state universities well illustrate this fact. At one time all universities and nublic schobls were nrivatelv owned. The schools are c&tal. their former bwners “were capitalists. Now the towns; cities. states and the nation own these institutions of learning. The fornier owners have been discarded and the people-all the people have become the owners. At one stroke public ownership of schools abolished not only the educational capitalists, but all stocks, bonds, rent, interest and profit. The schools and universities are now run for use--education and not for profit as formerly.

This principle should be extended to include all natural resources and monopolies. In a sentence, it means that, WHAT THE PEOPLE USE IN COMMON THEY SHOULD OWN IN COMMON, AND WHAT THE PEOPLE USE PRI- VATELY THEY SHOULD OWN PRIVATELY.

All humanitarians and up-to-date political economists agree with me on the above declaration. On the other hand not an idler, not a plutocrat, and not a profiteer on earth favors my proposal. Neither did the slave-owning aristocracy of the South favor abolition of slavery. One million profiteers are opposed to my plan and 99 million are in favor of it. But the one million are organized and the 99 million are largely unorganized. The one million own the press, the pulpit and the forum and through these means keep the “mob” unorganized and divided.

It is the solemn duty of the intelligent portion of tbe 36

!)9 million to educate the rest of this great body of hu- manitv. Peaceful means and methods must be devised for restoring the natural resources plus the means of produc- tion and distribution to the people so that all who desire to toil may have access to the .means of life on equal terms.

ALL SHOULD WORK. In short, our economic system should be so remodeled

that no able-bodied person could consume without ex- pending an equivalent amount of mental or physical labor.

As I have said before, one of the easiest, smoothest, most effective and. frictionless remedies is the establish- ment of co-operation, plus the annulment of inheritance.

Co-operation is an immediate and effective cure for the high cost of living. It forever squelches the profits2er. It destroys the trust chain store. It puts the quietus on the trust. It destroys monopoly, it teaches the workers step by step how to conduct producfion and distribution. It is the sure school of experience. In short, it is the sure, safe and sane vehicle to be used in making the tran- sition from private ownership to collective ownership in

, all those things that are collectively used. All other things to be owned privately.

The philosophy of co-operation, and’the great co-oper- ative movement are little understood in this country al- though it has been a tremendous success throughout the world but more particularly in Europe and England.

With but few exceptions the people have not been permitted to learn that throughout the world co-operation is growing four times faster than population.

Ther have not told vou that in several countries the co-operative movement is growing ten times faster than population. They hare not told you that one-third of the population of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales is co-operative.

Thev have been careful not to inform you that 85 per cent of Denmark is co-operative. In fact, nothing but the shell of Denmark is left to capitalism.

Co-operation has honey-combed Asia, Africa, South America and .4ustralia, while all of Europe is almost ready to “go over the top.”

In the U. S. there are 15,000 co-operative societies and the list is growing daily. These societies do a business~ of several billion dollars a year.

37

Undoubtedly you are not aware that most nations are racing toward co-operation and that Russia has 100 million co-operatives.

CO-OPERATION DEFINED. What is co-operation and why does it appeal to all

progressive people? First of all co-oneration is anDlied democracv. Co-

operation gives equal’opportunity 6 all of its members as distinguished from equal pay.

Co-oneration is an ornanized movement to nroduce and distribuie the necessities <f life without the aid of middle- men and therefore without profit. It is strictly non-re- ligious and non partisan. It passes commodities direct from the producer to the consumer at the least possible expense -at actual cost.

In a canitalist organization the members draw divi- dends in prdhortion td’tbe number of shares owned, while in a co-oneratire societv the benefits and dividends re- ceived are based on the amount of trade done by the indi- vidual society. In a capitalist regime dollars count; in a co-operative society human bkings count and that’s a mighty. big difference.

Frequently co-onerative societies start in as “buying clubs.” As the membership increases and the savings ar- cumulate a store is purchased. From this nucleus other stores are develoned until finally in many localities the entire citizensbin is in the co-onerative movement. When the co-operative’ stores become &numerous enough a co-op- erative wholesale is established and as the savings from both retail and wholesale accumulate the societies do their own importing and finally embark in full fledged manu- facturing.

This has all develoDed so fast latelv that in some rountries nractically every commoditv used is manufac- tured bv the society. The last step is the acquisition of the natural resources and when this has been accom- plished profiteering and domineering has completely ceased and forever. The workers then for the first time in his- tory will have comnlete control of their own lives, aspira- tions and possibilities.

Even all this is but one nim of co-operatives. It ctrives for other important things. It establishes insurance against sickness, death, unemployment, accidents and old age. It

38

provides pensions for motherhood; makes loans to mem- bers; provides housing, recreation, club houses, medical and nursing care, hospitals and sanitariums.

FUNDS--HOW OBTAINED. The funds with which to carry on the above nroaram

are derived from the difference beiween the cost and-sell-, ing price. If the co-operative societies sold at cost none of these splendid undertakings could be carried out. Neither could the wholesale’s be established or manufacturing he undertaken. This explains why real Rochdale co-operative societies invariablv sell at nrevailine: retail nric,es and then use part of the saiings for- expansion and welfare and re- turn the rest to the members in exact proportion to the amount of trading done at the co-onerative store. That plan invariablv spells success; anv othir plan spells failure.

Co-operative stores and industries are not handicapDed bv unnecessarv and useless exnenses as are orivate stices. Co-operative stores are not iequired to drum up trade. ~If a co-onerative stere is started right it has sold enduah stock ii advance to m~embers whose trade insures the s&- cess of the venture from the first day and any new mem- bers only makes the profits larger.

In co-operation there is no competition. Competitive business must advertise and employ expert salesmen; it is handicapped by the credit system; it stages “special sales” and undersells its competitors. It must spend liber- ally with political parties and for influencing legislation; it must maintain an elaborate and wasteful administration. A co-operative store or industry is cursed with none of these. These are but the financial benefits of a co-onerative societv. Co-oneration frees the consumer from hiseased and adulter&d foods; it provides wholesome supplies made under union conditions, it develons the brotherlv qualities in man-a new spirit and it makes him a co- operator.

It arouses the latent powers for good-the primitive instincts-to help one’s fellow ma?, to be kind, to be gen- erous, to render mutual aid-and it encourages thrift. It teaches the brotherhood of man-that an injury to one is an injury to all; that no one can cheat or be cheated with- out an injury to all, and above all it teaches him to work constantly for the great goal-industrial democracy.

In theJune number of the Monthly Labor Review by 39

TJ. S. Department of Labor Statistics, will be fqund an article on English Co-operation from which I have con- densed the following:

‘Year after year unfailing success has crowned the co-operative movement of Europe but more especially the British Co-operative movement. Today the co-operative societies of Great Britain embrace one-third of the population and before the war were growing five times faster than the increase in population, hut since the war they are growing ten times faster.

“These British Co-operative Societies distribute several hillion dollars worth of commodities to their members annually. Their profits or rather savings amount to several hundred million dollars annually, over half of which is returned to members as dividends and the rest used for further expansion and social betterments. They maintain a fleet of ocean steamships that carry commerce to several continents. They own and operate 165 factories, flour mills, soap works, shoe factories and the largest bakery in all England.

“They own large tracts of farm lands, tea and coffee plantations, coal mines, timber preserves, etc.

“They also purchased thousands of acres of land from the Eng- lish aristocracy and are rapidly developing farm communities.

“Almost every conceivable commodity is now manufactured by them and their total value is five times as great as the total of the Manufacturers’ Association.

“Their welfare work embraces most every branch of human service ; it serves not only Co-operatives alone, But is of wide social benefit, They conduct life-saving stations on the coast and admin- ister large funds for the relief of sufferers from famine and unem- ployment. Their banking de artment is on a par with the Bank of England, the largest of the ki ritish Empire.

YOne-half of the industrial life and accident insurance done in Great Britain is done by the Co-operatives. Their life insurance business is carried on at one-half the cost which the profit-making companies charge.”

SALARIES AND WAGES. The distinction between the wages and salaries paid

by co-operative and private concerns is very marked in all capitalist countries. The co-operatives pay better wages and provide better working conditions.

In all manufacturing and indjustrial countries where goods are made for profit and not for use and where such goods are sold in competitive markets each country strives to hire its labor at the very lowest price-a price often less than proper subsistence. In the U. S. our captains of ,in- dustry for years have sent agents into southeastern Europe to drum up cheap labor. They even imported Japs and Chinese Coolies who subsist on wages that would starve our own native workers.

The co-operatives everywhere in all continents have tabooed such practices.

While the co-operatives are surrounded by capitalism and competition they still manage to pay their employees

40

better wages and provide bc,etter worki.ng col?$tiol?s. On f!h;,otlipr hand the salary paid co-operative offlclals IS nom-

Ear mstance, the presidents and general managers of co-operative societies that do hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business annually receive from $1,750 to

. W2.500 ner vear. while in this countrv. f i f tv or one hundred tb&usaLd dollar salaries are very &&non for similar po- sitions. Experience proved that these co-operative officials are far superior to anything the capitalists can muster. These co-operative officials were developed from the ranks of labor and proves conclusively that labor has plenty of latent ability and it needs only the opportunity which co-operation affords to develop it.

It is said that the head of the steel trust-Judge Gary, receives a salary of one 5mJllion a year and several mil- lions in profits besides.

In the one case a $1,750 co-operative president saves the English worker hundreds of millions of dollars an- nually while the million dollar president of the steel trust makes hundreds of millions for a few idlers and then for good measure denies 250,000 steel workers the right to organize and better their condition . The late steel strike which was nothing less than civil war would be entirely eliminated under co-operation. On the one side are the workers who demand decent wages and proper living con- ditions. On the oth’er side are the captains and monarchs of industrv who think, eat and dream of nothing but profits.

Their interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the workers. What benefits one harms the other and what harms one benefits the other. Thev can never he harmonious. We have had centuries of” strife between these conflicting interests and we have had hundreds of wars betw%een nations entirely caused by profiteers.

CAUSE OF WAR. Each competitive nation seeks to control other nations

that it may have a market for its surplus goods-goods made by labor, but since labor was not paid wages large enough to buy back what it produced it must be sold in foreign markets. Wilson tells us that all wars were caused by commerc.ial rivalries and every school boy now knows it.

Right now the profiteers are stirring up trouble for the. purpose of plunging us into a war with Mexico. Does any sane man believe for a second that, Mexico, a nation

41

not one-twentieth as powerful as the U. S. deliberately seeks to nrovoke war with us? It is unthinkable.

It hai been estimated that 40 billion of profits have been salted down by the war profiteers during the past four years.

On the solemn and oft repeated promise of Wilson’s 14 terms of peace the writer became very active in the successful nrosecution of the war and he has been eauallv active ever-since the armistice in assisting the admi&tra- tion in coining these loudly acclaimed 14 terms of peace into real international law.

The nrofiteers have nrevented the ado&ion of so much as a single one of these much desired ld points. -Had a real league of nations-one that would actually prevent all future wars resulted from this four vear war-then the war though horrible would have been-justified.

Instead of a real league of nations they have endeav- ored and are still endeavorine: to force UDO~ a wearv. war- torn world a new Holy Alli&ce-an ailiance that”&ould forever stifle the rule of the people and crush all attempts to establish industrial democracv.

AMENDMENT TO U. S.’ CONSTITUTION. In view of all this the people are justified and fully

within their constitutional rights and guarantees in de- manding that the U. S. Constitution be so amended that the protlteers can not plunge us into another war without first submitting it to a vote of the people. Anything radi- cal or alarming about that-Not at all! Our glorious old constitution has already been amended fifteen or twenty times.

We boast of being a democracy-a nation in which the people rule. Let’s see about that.

As matters now stand, those who declare war do none of the fighting, while those who do the fighting have noth- ing to say about declaring war.

Well, for once, let us throw off the mask and practice what we preach. Let’s place the power to declare war in the hands of the people where it belongs. Let our law-makers submit a referendum to a vote of the people providing that no wars can be declared unless so ordered by a majority vote of the people at a special election.

Nuw then since it is conceded that this would inevit- ably prevent all future wars, let’s not lose a minute in changing the constitution so as to provide for a vote on war. 43

FACTS ABOUT MEXICO. Referring again to the constant effort by the profiteers

lo plunge us into an unholy war of conquest with Mexico, 1 wish to call attention to an important consideration:

President Wilson has repeatedly told us that a power- ful oil crowd and other “interests” were responsible for the trouble along the Mexican border. This is proved by the fact that practically no Mexican “border raids” or other troubles occurred for two years as our efforts were needed in Europe, but the moment the armistice was signed hell has been let loose and Mexico is again on the warpath according to these profiteers.

If Mexico really is looking for trouble with the U. S. surely she should have jumped on us while we were busy in Europe. Since the armistice was signed the entire Mexi- can border on the American side is an armed camp. Eighty forts and barracks, count ‘em1 eighty have be’en erected since hostilities ceased in Europe or in other words within one year. To a man up a tree does this look like Mexico was the aggressor?

Mexico has but one-seventh the nonulation of the U. S. and is an agricultural and mining nation, largely unde- veloped. It has scarcely a factory and could not manu- facture a gun or cannon if so desired. Does this look like she is itching to jump onto the U. S.?

Forget it! ‘Permit me to quote unimpeachable evi- dence that American profiteers are determined to gobble up -Mexico. President Wilson himself has charged that American moneybags, through the circulation of false news wish to start a war with Mexico. Here are his exact words:

“The object of this traEic in falsehood is obvious. It is to create intolerable friction between the Government of the U. S. and Mexico for the purpose of bringing about war in the interests of certain American owners of Mexican properties.”

As if to further emphasize the above the President added:

“The people of the U. S. should know the sinister and unscrupu- lous influences that are afoot and should be on their guard, crediting any story coming from the border.”

Coming as it does from the President himself, can there be any further doubt as to who is the aggressor?

Vice-President Fairbanks on numerous occasions has expressed the beli’ef that profiteers and profiteers only are causing the ruction with Mexico.

43

why this hatred of Mexico and the Mexicans? The answer is oil, mines, silver, ranches, but especially oil. Without these there would be no talk of invading Mexico, no press bureaus to fill newpapers with lies, no politicians demanding a march across the Rio Grande.

It is said that life is insecure in Mexico. Little is said about oil and the vast holdings in Mexico by British, French and American capitalists. Saving lives. not dividends, is said to draw us i&o &+xico. -

469 Negroes Lynched Here. There are 15,000,OOO people in Mexico, of whom 116,000

are foreigners. Some 217 Americans and some 927 other foreigners, a total of 1,144, were killed during eight years of revolution and reconstruction following the Diaz dic- tatorship. In other words, in a period of chaos and revolu- tion, during which the Carranza government was beset with all sorts of difficulties? one per cent of the foreign popu- lation became the victims of violence.

How is it with the United States! There are 469 Ne- groes lynched in this country, exclusive of race riots. Thousands of foreigners, among them Mexicans, lose their lives annually becaus’e of preventable industrial ‘accidents.’

Nobody Cleans Up America. A mob spirit is rampant. People are assaulted for

their opinions. Meetings are broken up. Negroes are in- jured and killed in the race riots of the American cities. Yet no ‘civilized’ country suggests that it is time to ‘clean up America’ because life is insecure. And there are no suggestions for an armed expedition against England.

Life insecure in M xico? What hypocrisy. We who tolerate the burning of Negroes at the stake; we who acqui- esce in the brutal treatment of political prisoners; we who are partners in the wholesale starvation of men, women and children in Russia; we with our terrible records at Bisbee, Butte, Lawrence, Patterson, Pittsburg; Gary and other mdustrlal centers., Who are we to carry the torch of liberty, fraternity,, enlightenment and peace to another country?

Oil Interests Hire Bandit. Is it not known that alien oil investors are asking

that we make their oil secure for them? They are re- snonsible for the disturbances in the chief oil region, Tam- l&o. By their own admissions they are enlploying a

44

bandit chief paying him a monthly salary varying, ac- cording to d’ff t t’ t i eren es lma es, from $330,000 to $370,000, for the sole purpose of preventing the Carranza govern- ment from establishing order in that region.

This bandit, supported by Wall Street money, main- tained open of&es in N. Y. City and the daily papers filled columns in describing his movements in both the U. S. and Mexico. .

Think of it, American plutocrats openly and with the aid of the daily papers plotting to overthrow the republican form of government of a neighboring nation. Only a na- tion ruled by profiteers would stoop to do it. No other na- tion on earth would stand for such tactics.

The charge of insecurity of life is mere camouflage. What hurts the oil crowd is not bandits, whom they up- hold and nav. but the fact that Mexico in 1917 adooted a new con&&on with provisions calculated to make the Mexicans masters of their own country. The chief thorn in the fleslh of the foreign oil barons is Article XXVIII, which asserts, among other things the following:

“In the nation is vested direct ownership of all minerals ------petroleum and all hydrocarbons---L ____

The nation shall have--..-----the right to impose on private property such limitations as the public interest may demand as well as the right to regulate the develonment of natural resources.” -

What the Mexican government says to the foreign oil comnanies is this: You mav do business in this countrv, but hot as in the old days of Diaz when you obtained con: cessions for nothing, often by bribery, and coined immense profits without making adequate returns to the Mexican government. Henceforth we shall tax vour oil and mines & we tax our own citizens, no more a&l no less.

This should make it plain why intervention in Mexico is sought by the “interests.”

It should be borne in mind that the oil fields of Mexico are the richest in the world. But one-twentieth of the known oil lands of Mexico are in the hands of foreigners, yet that one-twentieth provides two million barrels per day-twice the total product of the entire U. S. Oil wells in Mexico that do not gush (pumping is not necessary) 50 thousand barrels a day are considered failures. Not only are Mexican oil fields the richest in the world but her other natural resources (gdld, silver, coal, soil, water-power, etc.)

45

are so fabulous as to beggar description. Wouldn’t such a rich country as Mexico be fine picking for the same bunch of looters that have gobbled up everything in the U. S. and are now boosting the cost of living?

MY PURPOSE. By this time the reader is doubtless curious to know

why a booklet designed to explain and extol the virtues of co-operation devotes so much space to war and more es- neciallv as it uertains to Mexico.

long Th”e reasoi is very plain? positive and pertinent. So

as production and distribution of the necessities of life-are left in private hands the curse of war will remain, because under the profit system the workers are paid a wage, which, as we have already shown, will buy back but a nortion of what the worker nroduces. This causes a surpl& which must find an ouilet in foreign markets. Other nations are also seeking the same foreign markets and of course a scramble and flnallv a war ensues. That is . what our four-year war was ali about.

How to divide these markets in the future is what held the Peace Conference for a year, and the thing isn’t settled yet.; 23 nations are still at war and the rest of the qations are right now arming as never before.

So long as profiteers continue to waste hundreds of billions in warring for markets there can not possibly be enough left to feed, clothe and shelter the workers. Hence to end war must be our object. Co-operation is th’e way out. Therefore the slain dutv of everv worker is to make intelligent use of tee ballot and join “his nearest co-oper- ative society. This program and this program only will bring peace-and pleniy to all.

_ -

Co-operation is the means, th’e vehicle to be used in making the transition from profiteering capitalism into industrial democracy.

Workers and wage earners are urged to make full use of the ballot and their unions and not to abandon their activities in these two directions.

The union. the ballot and co-oweration are the three peaceful instriments for achieving-industrial democracy. Experience has taught us that any one of these or any two have utterly failed. The three combined are invaluable and invincible.

“The co-operative plan is the best plan of organization wherever nwn hare the right spirit to carry it out. * * It develops indi-

46

vidual respo~wil~ility am1 has a moral as well as a tinancird value over any other plan.“-Theodore Roosevelt.

“The store of the people, by the people and for the people in which tbe sentiment is ‘each for all and all for each’ is a new thing. It is new to buy through an agency which practically guarantees quality and cost. For the consumer to know that a store is run solelv in his interest and is suurrvised bv his chosen representative is IWW.~ To help adjust the n&d of members to these new conditions is an important part of the task of education.“--EWerson P. Harris.

CoIoperative stores are made successful by people who have a real sense of responsibility and are not in the habit of choosing privileges for which they assume no corres- ponding sense of obligation.

Co-operation is a sense of solidarity of human interests, the feeling that the only way one can really help himself is to help others. It is enlightened s’eltlshness.

It would require volumes to set forth even in bare outline the tremendous wastes of the pres’ent competitive system in natural resources and human energy.

In this booklet I have pointed out but a few of the many glaring leaks and it remains to point out the leak that overshadows them all.

In the world’s history there has been one waste pro- duct so much more important than all the others combined that it has a right to be called THE waste product. It is the higher abilitv of the working classes, the latent and un- developed, the choked up and wasted faculties for higher work that for lack of opportunity have come to nothing. Co-operation gives full and free opportunity to develop all these wasted possibilities and natural abilities that may be possessed by the individual.

POLITICAL PARTIES. All too long have the toilers of America depended upon

fake statesmen and peanut politicians for any improvement in their condition. Before election the politicians are fluent with promises. Before election they will promise anything; after election they do nothing.

In this respect there is no difference between the re- publican, democratic, Bull Moose or any reform party.

These parties are different only in names. All of these parties flirt with labor and are married to ‘capital.

All of these parties know where the campaign funds come from and none of them ever forget it.

The politicians and so-called statesmen of all these parties stand for the same thing-the same “system”-

47

unlimited private ownership, plus profiteering. This is easily proven because there are and can he hut two “sys- tems” -private ownership vs. public ownership. They oppose with all their power the public ownership of the natural resources and the means of production and distri- bution. If you doubt it, ask any of them. Therefore, they stand for what is. Therefore, everv vote cast or any of these political parties means a continuation of what is.

THE COAL MINERS’ STRIKE. Th’e president admits that the miners should have a

31% increase of wages which would barely meet the in- creased cost of living and left nothing for an increased standard of living to which they were entitled. What was done? Why, bless you, exactly what is always done when labor is considered, the miners were forced back with bay- onet, injunction and threatened imprisonment on a measly 14% increase-17% less than a living wage.

To be sure, this was done by a Democratic administra- tion, but every republican, democrat, independent or what- not voted against the strikers. Thus labor can expect nothing from old parties.

So far as the toilers are concerned the onlv lonical conclusion that can be drawn from the entire ‘poli‘tical and economic situation is, that the toilers must look out for themselves.

And now what are we, the ninety and nine going to do about it? Keep things as they are? Well, that’s what the three old narties want vou to do. That is fatal as ex- perience is proving. Stir up strife, hatred, strikes, riots, bloodshed and raise h-l in general? That never has and never will settle anything permanently.

Add to and extend the war-time espionage law for- bidding free speech, free press, free assemblage and the expression of honest opinion?

That breeds revolution, as all of Europe fully demon- - strates.

Are we to keep right on as we have done for f i f ty years and raise wages and then tack it back on the com- modities labor produces and then raise wages again and then stick it back on commodities-an endless chain that gets us nowhere:, Well, if we wish to imitate puppy dogs chasing their tails, let’s keep it up another tIfty years.

48

I f we wish a just. neaceful and everlasting settlement it can be done only by-ending profiteering. -

This can be done only by collective ownership of the natural resources including all the collectively used means of production and distri’bution.

The chief means of accomplishing labor’s emancipa- tion is through co-onerative societies.

Labor needs only to make up its mind to thoroughly in- vestigate co-operation to be convinced that it is not only feasible and profitable but that is the only way out of the economic jungle in which we are trapped.

HIGH AUTHORITIES. ‘Xo-operation has succeeded in vastly inproving the

position of millions of the working classes by enabling them to obtain their provisions cheap and pure, to avoid the millstone of debt, to save money, to pass frcnn retail to wholesale trade, and from distribution to manufacturing, building and house-owning, ship-owning and banking, above all to educate themselves and to live with an ideal.“- Encyclopedia Britannica; 11th edition, VII, page 84.

This is a splendid but deserving testimonial from the world’s highest authority.

Co-operation has some wonderful achievements to its credit and yet it is hardly under way.

When on’ce the masses learn the truth about co-opera- tion it will spread like wildfire.

It is no% believed bv most thinkers that before we can have a developed democracy the nation at large must pos- sess those moral characteristics which have enabled co- operation to introduce democratic self-government into a certain portion of industry, commerce and finance of the nation. It is, therefore, as moral reformers that co-oper- ators pre-eminently deserve a place in the vanguard of human progress. Experience is a great teacher and nothing can really take its place. The successful experience of co- operators in all the leading nations of the world is the rising star of hope for the toiling masses.

Co-operation has shown that the masses have the latent power to free themselves and that if they would be free they must do it themselves.

TOLSTOI. Tolstoi’s famous illustration of the poor man carrying

on his back the exploiting and profiteering classes of the 49

well-to-do and educated, who are sorry for him and who wipe the perspiration from his brow and advise him and point out the beauties of the landscape to him and do everything for him except get off his back, helps one to realize that our social and economic inter-relations pro- foundly influence our lives. Under co-operation those who have been riding will have to get off and assist with the burdens of society. That will make real men of them. And when those who have been carrying the idlers on their back are relieved of their burden they also will become men the equal of any race on earth. Both the riders and the ridden will, for the first time, realize what it means to be a real man.

ADVANTAGES AND VICTORIES OF CO-OPERATION. Co-operation will change a world of men fighting

against each other to a world of men fighting for each other.

The golden rule of competitive business was rightly phrased by David Harum as “Do unto the other fellow what he is going to do to you and do it tlrst,” but the golden rule of co-operation is put into practice just as it was stated bv the nractical idealist of Galilee.

Society gains inestimably when men can do business and women can go shopping on the highest moral plane.

‘.It changes trade from a social and ethical liability into a :social and ethical asset and makes it a greaf, uplifting in- fluence.

Since co-operative production and distribution is own- ed bv its members: is of bv and for themselves: is conduct- ted for use and not’profit, the incentive and motive to short w’eight, adulterate and swindle is entirely eliminated. Hence :a co-operative mother can send her chidlren to the store :and know that goods will be exactly as represented. Co- operative managers and clerks are a part of the co-operative society and could not possibly gain anything from cheat- ing or misrepresenting and hence they never do it. Thus in one stroke co-operators put business on a permanently high moral plane. The purchasing agent for a chain of co-operative stores, being a part of the society buys only

’ such commodities as are pure, wholesome and made under .union conditions. No shoddy and adulterations are ac- cepted. It is therefore not -necessary for the members when they go shopping to haggle about the price or wonder

about the quality. That has all been taken care of by their own expert. That is a tremendousl$ important fac- tor in favor of co-operation and should be carefully con- sidered by all consumers. In no other way can the house- wife be assured that she is not eating trihhina pork, con- sumntive beef, diseased sausage. formhaldebide milk, pois- oned canned goods, alum bread and a long list of other adulterated foods.

CO=OPERATORS VS. THE TRUSTS. Let me say at the outset that in all th’eir fights against

the trusts the co-operators have never lost a battle in any country on earth. - Alwavs and evervwhere the trusts, the profiteers and the High-Cost-of-Living boosters have sought to crush the co-or>erators.

In this countrv not a victorv has been won bv our would-be trust b&t,ers. For fiftlr vears we have” first tried to reeulate and then smash the trusts.

First the democrats and then the renublicans would trv to smash the trust. In everv so-called “battle” they merely provide a Punch and Judy entertainment for the fool neople. Finally thle mighty Teddv. the bear slaver rnd lion tamer. tnok an eight-vear swing at ‘em. After Terldv bad mopned the floor with the trusts and dramati- rally announced their death. up bobs Senator LaFollette and nctnally pub!ish,es a list of several thousand brand new trots that had been formed in the 77. S. during Teddv’s administration.

No evidence.is needed to prove that the trusts are still with us. Prires were never so high, prbfiting never so brazen and fnrtune’s never so gr&t and so -numerous. Comes now the working classes and organize themselves into co-operative societies in a score of countries in an en- deavor to provide for themselves pure food, honest wares, made under union labor conditions. Little attention was rigid to them at first hnt when the17 beuan to grow fast, five times as fast as population and finallv, ten times as fast, then the’trusts in every country began to sit up and take notice because here was a sure enough, honest-to-John menarp to their nrofiteerinq.

The ttists. as usual. threatened the co-onerators with extinction if thev undertook to sell commod’ities except on the old fashioned profiteering basis. This the co-operators refused to do.

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The history of these tights are mighty interesting and would fill volumes. Space forbids but a hare mention of a few notable cases.

SWITZERLAND. The American beef trust as every one knows domin-

ates the meat business of the world. In Switzerland the beef trust through a string of chain stores and packing houses controlled and dictated the meat prices in that Republic. Thev refused to sell meat to the Swiss co- operations. Tbe beef trust immediately started to freeze out the co-operators in their usual bulldog and brutal fashion.

The co-operators imm.ediately pledged themselves never to ebuv a pound of trnrt meat. And thev didn’t. They imported their own meats from Canada and South America. As a result the beef trust was licked and sold out its chain stores, packing houses and all to the co-ouerators. Not a pound of trust meat is sold in Switzerland today.

The co-onerators in R half dozen other countries have had similar beef trust fights and in every instance they won hands dnwn. The Swiss. co-operators also busted the leather and shoe trust. As a result, thev own tanneries, shoe factories and make shoes for themselves at less than half American prices. Thev laugh at Americans for pay- ing $10 to $15 for shoes that can be produced and sold for $3 to $5.

THE ENGLISH AND SCOTCH SOAP TRUST. For many years the ~millions of English and Scotch

co-operators bought the famous “Sunlight Soaps.” As usual, they sold it at regular retail prices and then re- bated the profits to the members in proportion to their purchases. A ninety-million-dollar soap trust was formed and they decided that the co-ouerative plan of rebating- profits to its members was virtually cutting prices, so they refused to sell soan to them.

The co-operatives then began to buy vegetable oils and other ingredients in South Africa and made their own soaps. The trust then cornered the market on raw materials in South Africa and it looked like the trust had won a romplete victorv. Not so by a long shot. The co-operators immediately bought large production plantations and devel- oued new ones in South Africa. Todnv they own thousands of acres of land and a large fleet of monster ships that ply between the leading ports of the world. Public sentiment

52

‘Y

was with them and the ninety-million-dollar soap trust is no more.

English co-operators also smashed the famous British tea trust. Now the workers own their tea plantations in China and Japan and they transport it in their own hoats.

SWEDEN. The Swedish co-operators were discriminated against

by the sugar trust until finally thev went into the business for themselves and now there is&t a splinter left of the once brutal sugar trust so far as Norwav and Sweden are concerned,. In this country the adm’inistration has not prevented the sugar trust making $980,000,000 of profit in a few months.

In a half dozen countries the banks combined with the trusts and attempted to crush the workers because they insisted on pure food and honest commodities at honest prices. Immediately in all the countries thus at- tarked the co-operators started banks of their own and the notable thing is that these banks are among the largest in the world. This is especiallv true of the co- operative banks in England and Russia whose deposits, assests and business mounts into the billions. The hank ef Russia alone finances 50,000 co-operation societies.

I have cited but a few of the thousands of battles that have been fought between the kings of finance, the barons of industry and the princes of privilege on the one side and the co-operators on the other. The co-operators have never lost a battle! Not one!!

Their united capital and above all their enormous purchasing power make them the superiors of all possible combinations of monopolists and profiteers. Thus are the co-ouerators making the world safe for democracy and a safe and happy place to live in.

CO-OPERATION IN AMERICA. All business men 2nd’ manufacturers must follow cer-

tain, well-established business principles if they wish to succeed-principl’es tliat have proven successful by actual experience.

Let anvone of these business principles be violated and failure’is sure to follow.

The same idea holds good in all co-operative efforts. After many experiments and failures in Europe, the

English co-opCrators hit upon a plan that has not only 53

been successful in Great Britian but thromzhout the world. American co-operators failed to learn fro; the experience of European co-operators and persisted in experimenting. Failure was to be expected. But having abandoned ex- perimenting and adopted the clear-cut Rochdale plan, American co-operative societies are growing by leaps and bounds. Within a period of three years there has been established a chain of about 100 co-operative stores and a wholesale in Central, Ill.

The Pacific coast is all a-flame with co-operation. In Seattle the workers have a daily paper with ninety thou- sand subscribers. When the Seattle city market was run in the interest of the food profiteers the co-operators bought it from the city for a half-million dollars and today it is the finest market in the world. When the profiteers adulterated the milk and boosted the price, the co-operators bovcotted the profiteers and estabished a million-dollar

- milk condensary. In this venture the farmers and dairy- ,men joined the co-operators.

Again, when the meat trust palmed off diseased meats and sky-rocketed prices the co-onerators of Seattle jumped in and established a slaughter house. Now they handle 18 carloads of live stock per day. Co-operative motor . trucks radiate in every direction out of Seattle taking out to country co-operators citv wares and return with fresh country products thus eliminating a long list of profiteers.

BANKERS AND PROFITEERS. Alwavs the bankers join hands with the profiteers and

together they strive to crush the worker every time they strike against slavish conditions. In many places the banks refused to honor cherks of workers who had ample funds in the bank. Promptlv the workers opened UD a bank of their own. Again, when the newspapers published lies about the workers they starte.d a daily Daper which is today the largest on the coast. And all of this has been accomplished wlthin two sears. Spurred on by these re- markable achievements the whole coast is being trans- formed into a huge co-operative society.

And so I might go on and on narrating the co-opera- tors successes in Tampa, in Patterson, in Fitchburg, in Louisiana, in Michigan and throughout the Nation.

Fifteen thousand co-oprrative socities are flourishing in all parts of the United States and scores of new ones are being organized every day-.

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The co-operative germ is in the air and the profiteers can’t find an antidote because there is no antidote. Experi- ence is prdving that co-operation is the cure for high prices and our other economic ills.

Co-operative societies afford its members an excellent training for citizenshin. Co-oueration is a school of de- niocracUy. The very conditio& of success in democrat- ic distribution are such as to train men for political de- mocracy. The members must forego the immediate ad- vantages for remoter aood and above all must make nrom-

~“EaFh for all and all for each.” a inent this motto: Let me elmphasize the fact that co-operative societies

are at once a nolitical training school and a university of honest business ethics. -

Co-operation is already a great force for universa1 brotherhood and anti-war. Almost alone it has maintained this international spirit during the great war. This was well illustrated by the fact that when German soldiers in- vaded Franae and Belgium they spared all co-operative stores and industries. Even during the war the English, French and Italian co-onerators were ulannine: to assist their brethren in the Central Empires as-soon aghostilities should case. And when the alliances of co-operative soci- eties met in Berlin and Paris, vacant chairs were nlaced around the table for members.of enemy countries. -

Co-operation gives its members a new vision, it points out new possibilities and duties. It emphasizes the idea that when we work for the unlift of others we virtuallv work for ourselves. In co-opkr ation the success of one means the success of all. No one profits by another’s loss. The forces of co-oneration have uroved to be the recruit- ing stations for tlie armies of social service. It teaches the need of fellowship and unity. It gives the habit of self-direction by imposing responsibilities and teaches self- government and it shifts from the materialistic to the &er things of the spirit.

There are various organizations that seek the advance- ment of their own particular group at the expense of the rest of humanity. Among such organizations are bankers, merchants, manufacturers, teachers, preachers, farmers. craft laborers. etc.. etc.

As ‘distinguished fom ihese selfish organizations co- operative societies seek to organize all the people. It ac= complishes this by organizing the consumer because every-

55

body is a consumer. This is a tremendous fact. Nobody can live without consuming. Therefore when we organize consumers into co-onerative societies we organize all the people. Co-operation is the only ,economic movement on earth.that embraces all the people. All other organizations seek to increase their income at the expense of others. For instant, the banker seeks to increase the number of dollars in his salary envelope and the labor union protects only the dollar the workingman earns. Co-operation does all of this and more, immensely more! It protects every dol- lar the workers spend. That means co-operative distribu- tion. At present 60 cents of any dollar earned is spent in distribution. Therefore distribution is the big overshadow- ing problem which co-operation is successfully solving.

If you desire further information concernng co- operation notify the author of this booklet and you will be looked after free of charge.

If on the other hand you are already convinced of the correctness and the necessity of co-operation, sign the following application for a 50-dollar share of stock of the Toledo Co-operative Stores Co., and mail it to W. F. Ries, 353 Rockingham St., Toedo, Ohio. This society is incor- porated under the laws of Ohio and you are therefore fully protected. Do it today.

CAPITALISM DOOMED. Capitalism has been in the saddle for more than a cen-

tury and it has all but ruined civilzation. Surrounded by an abundance of natural resources, a rich soil, bumper crops, a magnificent system of industries and manufactur- ers, yet it can neither feed, clothe nor shelter the people. A few have too much and millions have_ not enough. Millions starve in the midst of plenty. No animal on earth will starve in the midst of plenty save man, and men, men, made in the image of God, starve in the midst of plen- ty only because a few idlers compel them to starve, by denying the workers free access to the natural resuroces. Capitalism is just emerging from a 5-year task of murder in which ten million human beings were killed, twelve millions other crippled for life, and it is freely predicted that 106,000,000 others are likely to starve to death this winter m Europe. An entire continent of children will grow up to be runty specimens of humanity as a result of this war. Half a continent has been devastated and two

56

hundred billion of debts have been saddled upon present and future generations-all for the purpose of determining which group of capitalist nations shall have the privilege of exploiting the undeveloped and backward nations of the earth.

Already the nations are arming for the next war as never before. Right now the United States is spending annually over a billion dollars on her army and navy in anticipation of the next war. This is over three times as much as Kaiser Bill spent for his army and navy in’ his palmiest days. All other nations are spending more than ever. All nations are arming because each capitalist nation fully understands that still other and greater wars must be fought over ‘and over again as in the past just so long as capitalism shall last. No where have, the workers a drrect vdice in government. No where have the millions who are compe&d bv conscription to do the fighting a word to sav about star&g wars. Nowhere have the work- ers a voice-in determining the terms of peace. Always and everywhere the workers have been denied the inherent right to a referendum vote on war.*

Always and everywhere the profiteers who do no fight- ing and pay no war debts have all to say about war. These are the facts, self-evident facts.

How to straighten out this world-wide problem is the all important question of the hour. Upon its immediate and correct solution depents the fate of civilization itself.

THE SOLUTION. Comes now the co-operative ‘societies of the world

and offer co-operation as the principal means of solving this problem in a peaceful, permanent and speedy way. When once the toilers own and operate the means of pro- duction and distribution they will not be such big fools as to waste the uroducts of their toil in killing off men, women and children who happen to live in ofher co& tries. War compels one set of workers to kill another set of workers whom they never saw and against whom they have no grievance. Co-operation necessitates no revolu- tion. It disturbs no authority of proprietorship, confiscates no man’s property and equalizes the future without vio- lence or blood shed and it puts an end to all wars.

Co-operation automatically adjusts the strained rela- tions between capital and labor. Co-operators are not

57

haters of capital. Rather they are the creators of capital. It is a steady influence for industrial peace, against strikes and low wages, long hours and child labor. It unites the interests of the dealer and the consumer. It makes one the toilers and the intellectuals.

Co-operation is the highway over which humanity may pass to peace and plenty.

(Note-As this goes to press word comes from Italy that the workers have forced the enactment of a law which compels a referendum. vote before war can. be de- clared.)

The workers of several other nations are doing the same thing. Let the American workers get in the pro- cession at once. Away with war forever.

FAKE REMEDIES. The writer has written a score of books among them

“Hawks and Hens” from which I quote the following: “Thinking people for ages have hcen seeking a soltitian for the

social and industrial problems. during all of which time thousands of governments have been born, have lived their brief existence and have died. Born in poverty, each passed through its youthful period of prosperity,-the flower of middle age,-and -attained a position of wealth and affIuence. then at the pinnacle of its power and greatness, died;-died as though stricken by some inherent disease that was be- yond the knowledge of man to cure. “History repeats itself” seemed to be the only answer to account for the succession of births and deaths of nations.

“Yet, to thinking minds this answer is not satisfying. Why does death strike nation after nation, system after system and government after government, as a creeping palsy, at a time when they seem most prosperous? That was and still is THE question.”

Looking back over ‘history we find that Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and all the nations of antiquity, without ex- ception, withered and died when wealth had drifted into the hands of the few.

In this country, according to government statistics, 2% of the people own more than the other 110 million, and the process of concentration is still going on faster than ever. Does any sane man believe that such a system can continue indefinitely?

Shall we heed the inevitable lessons of history and seek a real remedy or shall we continue to bring forth fake remedies and thus rush into certain oblivion?

The question now is-what seen or unseen, thing, force or system causes all the wealth to drift from the haads of honest toil into the laps of a few idlers? ,

58

There is and can be but ONE answer, viz: THE PRES- ENT SYSTEM OF UNLl~UI%D PRIVATE OWNERSHIP is the cause of it all.

Every nation on earth went to certain ruin the moment it abandoned COMMON OWNERSHIP and adopted PRI- VATE OWNERSHIP of the natural resources and other commonly used means of production and distribution.

This being the undisputed fact, the remedy lies in a return to COMMON OWNERSHIP of all those things upon which human life denends.

It follows very 16gically, therefore, that all other rem- edies are pure fakes. It cannot be otherwise. Make no mistake aLout that!

In one powerful stroke this fact brushes aside all the would-be cures for the economic ills of the people which are being pushed forward from day to day by “big busi- ness.”

This fact exposes the fraud which the steel trust and other concerns are offering their employees in the shape of selling stock to its employees. It is on a par with a burglar who offers to return one-fourth of his swag to the man he robbed as a compromise that he may continue to rob.

Every concern that sells its employees stock in their concern only rivets the shackles tighter than ever on their wage-slaves-it’s a scheme to perpetpate profiteering. Just as tile slave master offered one scheme after another to perpetuate chattel slavery.

Here is how the thing works out: The steel trust, for instance. has four dollars of watered stock to each dollar of actual investment. Therefore, when a worker buys StOCK in said cornoration he hands three dollars to the idle trust owners -for watered stock and keeps one dollar for himself.

For the same reason every time a worker earns four dollars, he keeps one dollar and gives the other three to his idle master.

In order to make this entirely clear let us suppose the N. Y. & N. Haven railro-d should introduce anv one of the many profit-sharing schemles, 50+0 stunts, abd urge its emplo]yes to buy stocK in their railroad.

First, we must remember that the Inter-State Com- merce Commission reports show that the railroads of this country are capitalized at about 20 billion dollars and that 16 billion of this is pur\9water4

All industries as w 11 as the railroads are dope$o;p with watered stock in about the same proportion. - ernment records show that the N. Y. N. Haven railroad has 16 dollars of watered stock to each dollar of actual in- vestment.

Now then, no matter how much new stock is issued and sold to the New Haven railroad workers, everv time the workers received one dollar in dividends the -inher- itors of this watered stock, who never turn a ‘hand, get 16 times as much as the men who created all this wealth. Nor is this all. .Long before any dividends are considered, nrincelv salaries are naid to the railroad officials and above >I1 the workers remain wage-slaves because they have no voice in fixing the wages or the terms and conditions under which they must toil. This is actual slavery. Nothing less.

All your profit-sharing and 50-50 stunts are in the same bunco game. Take the scheme which Henry Ford is offering his men and look it over. At once we discover that Henrv wou!d still make several times as much as his 100,000 employees. Henry is smooth, very smooth.

It cannot be denied that every worker is entitled to the full net product of his toil-no more-no less!

That being the case, let labor steer clear of all proiit- sharing schemes offered by the canitalists.

Every time a worker buys stock in any privately owned corporation he helps prolong the profiteering system and skins himself.

Workers everywhere should invest their earnings in co-operative industries and in that way they become the owners, and they and not the other fellow, get the full social value of their toil. Join your nearest co-operative so- ciety.

Do it today. FIFTEEN THOUSAND CO-OPERATIVE

SOCIETIES UNITE There are today more than fifteen thousand co-opera-

live societies in the U. S. Three thousand of these are retail societies. The other

twelve thousand include co-operative banks, factories, wholesale stores, creameries, cheese factories, grain ele- vators, laundries, newspapers, packing houses, rural motor truck routes, fruit growers associations, etc., etc.

Recently these fifteen thousand co-operative societies 60

sent delegates to Chicago and formed a national co-opera- tive association.

This national co-operative society is hacked up by all the progressive and forward-looking pe’ople and societies in the U. S., including the American Federation of Labor, Railroad Brotherhoods, farmer clubs, etc.

The eight co-operative wholesale houses, each with a million-dollar capitalization, united with this group.

Already arrangements are under way for establishing a chain of banks with! a capital of f i f ty million dollars.

In addition to this the Railroad Brotherhoods have a [:3sh sn$us of forty million dollars in Cleveland which they propose to use to establish co-operative factories and. wholesale houses, cold storage plants, etc.

No longer will the orotlteers be able to crush co-onera- tive retail s’tores by refusing to sell to them.

*

The well-established co-operative wholesales have Ions! since comuleted arrangements with the twelve thou- sand farmer’s co-operative societies to deliver farm produce, meats, fruits, etc., direct from the producer to the con- sumer. Since government figures show that it costs sixty cents to market forty cents worth of goods, the saving to the consumer will mount into the billions. These billions will then benefit both the producer and consumer. The long line of middlemen and profiteers will have to shut up shop and enter the field of production where they are badly needed.

These eight co-operative wholesale houses are scattered throughout the country from San Francisco and Seattle on the coast, to New York City. New cooperative wholesale houses will be established in all ‘leading cities including Toledo.

These co-operative wholesale houses are patterned after the famous Enelish co-onerative wholesales and are owned and contruolled by t-he local co-operative societies. Delegates are elected by the retail societies to reuresent themat the stockholders’ conventions of the whol&des- and the co-operative factories. This insures democratic control from the ground up. In this way the final control is kent in the hands of the individual menbers of the retail co-operatives. That is real industrial democracy.

The real object of co-operation, finally, is to own all the natural resources, mlills, mines and factories, and pro- duce and distribute for USE and not PROFIT.

61

A REAL co-operator fully understands that a single co- operative retail store could alone benefit him but little. He understands that it is but the first link in the co-onerative chain that reaches back through the wholesale and the factory to the raw material and finally the natural re- sources.

A thorough campaign of education should always pre- cede the establishment of a local retail co-operative society.

Every Co-operator should know the history of co-op%- :ltive societies for the past 2000 years. He should ‘Imow why they were mostly failures. He should know why 18 out of every 20 cooperative societies in the U. .s. .%&d. He must also know that not a single cooperative society in any country on earth during the past 75 years has failed when it adopted and lived up to the English Rochdale plan. NOT ONE.

,4s a result of adopting the famous Rochdale coopera- tive system 250 million neonle in Eurone and other coun- tries -are successful coope-rators and- the movement is spreading like wild fire.

In the U. S. the workers have made a careful study of the famous English Rochdale system and like their Euro- pean brothers they are adopting it. They have ceased to experiment. As a result thousands of successful coopera- tive societies have sprung up in this country during the past few years.

Profiiteering has made cooperation a necessity and I pre- dict that within five vears the essential and basic indus- tries of this nation will be owned and controlled by the mental and physical workers-those whose sweat produce all wealth.

COOPERATION IN BRIEF.

The Co-operative Movement is an o’rganized force by means of which the control of the necessities of life bv the people themselves is made possible. It aims to set the people working together for their mutual benefit. It teaches how they may free themselves from the exploita- tion of private interests.

Through their co-operative organization, the people may become their own storekeepers, and distribute goods to themselves. Then they may become their own whole- salers, manufacturers, bankers, insurance societies and

-owners of the natural sources of supply. Co-operation 62

teaches the people how to provide, own and conduct their own housing, recreations and educational institutions! and: ultimately supply all of their needs. Its purpose 1s to1 take these things out of private hands, which administer’ them through a rompetitive system for purposes of private, gain, and install organized consumers in the place of nri- vate promoters.

It does this through methods which are democratic and founded on the principles of liberty and fraternity. It ex- cludes none. It desires that all shall join. Its significant function is to substitute the spirit of co-operation and mutual aid for that of competition and antagonism.

This movement exists in all the countries of the world. For seventy-five years it has been growing without ‘ceasing. Its increase is ten times faster than the population is in- creasinq In Europe it now embraces one-third of the population. In some countries a majority of the people are included in the Co-operative Movement. The organized societies in each country are federated in the world move- ment through the International Co-operative Alliance. This is the strongest and most effective democratic international organization in the world.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE BOILED-DOWN. FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH THE ROCH: DALE SYSTEM IS BASED:

1st. One vote only for each member regardless of how many shares a member may own. Thus, MEN and not MONEY control.

2nd. Six per cent interest to shareholders. 3rd. Savings (profits) returned to members in propor-

tion to trading done with the society: (Thus if “A’s” trade at the co-operative store amounts

to %OO.OO. and a dividend of 201 per cent be declared, “A” receives $160.0. Again if “B’s” trade is but $100 he re- reives but $20.00.)

.

4th. All goods bought for cash and SOLD for cash- no credit whatsoever. In addition to this every co-operative clerk and ofllcial is placed under bond, and the books are audited every month.

5th. The establishment of a social center and a con- stant campaign of education having for its object the rstablishment of industrial democracy.

6th. Part of all profits to be used to enlarge the 63

Imsiness until the workers own the earth with a fence around it.

7th. All goods sold strictly at prevailing retail prices, because if goods were sold at cost. or if ALL Drofits were returned td<members, nothing would be left with which to expand the business. Co-operators seek the final owner- ship of mills, mines, factories and all other socially used means of production and distribution. Only in this way can the toilers retain the full net product of their toil.

8th. Until capitalistic business is displaced by co- onerative business. all the efficient and effective “rules of the game” as praciiced by capitalistic business are adopted and used by the Rochdale system.

For instan.ce, state and national’laws compel banks to set aside a goodly part of their profits as a “surplus fund” for safety and further expansion.

Because this is a sound business principle the Rochdale co-operators have adopted it.

9th. Our method: First a store, then a chain of stores, then a wholesale, then factories, raw material, banks, etc., and finally a federation of all co-operative societies within the nation. Already this has been accomplished. -

Nor is this all. The co-operative societies of practical- ly every nation on earth-two hundred and fi f ty million strong-have united into one grand, world-wide ro-opera- tive federation.

Co-operation is coming so fast that many people can’t see it for dust.

Let ‘er come! FREE SPEECH.

No matter whose lips that speak, they must be free and ungagged. Let us believe that the whole truth can never do harm to the whole of virtue; and remember that in order to get the whole truth you must allow every man, right or wrong, freely to utter his conscience, and to pro- tect him in so doing. Entire, unshackled freedom for every ma& life, no matter what his doctrine-the safety of free discussion, no m’atter how wide its range. The community which dares not protect its humblest and most hated member in the free utterance of his opinions, no matter how false or hateful, is only a gang of slaves.

64

-Wendell Phillips.

Toledo,Ohio-------------L-------------1920 Believeing that Co-operation is a movement for the

economic emancipation of the working class by means of the productibn and distribution of the necessities of life by the people themselves, for service, not for profit, I hereby subscribe for--------shares of capital stock of the

THE TOLEDO CO-OPERATIVE STORES CO. $50.00 each, and agree to pay for same ___-____-______-__-- Name----,--------------- Town----------------------- Street-------------------- Telephone------------------ Reconvmendedhy-------_-_----_--_--__--------------------

FOOD VALUES Dr. A. W. Smith, noted chemist of Baltimore, is author-

ity for the following: “The Food Value of one pound of Corn Meal. Grits or

Hominy, costing three cents is equal to the food value of any of the following commonly used foods:

1 pound of Wheat Flour costing six cents; 1 pound of Rice costing nine cents; l’/ pounds of Cheese costing sixty cents; 234 pounds of Round Steak costing eighty cents; 2 dozen Eggs costing ninety cents; Half peck of Potatoes costing forty-five cents; Six pints of Milk costing thirty cents.

“The South knows and appreciates the value of white corn for table use; why not the North, East and West.”

“Drmocracy means co-operation. It means people trusting them- selves, believing in them$elves, organizing for their own benelit, getting for themselves all the profit of concentration and efllciency.

“It means for every man to have a share in the capitalization of his country and the proflts of its business as well as for him to have a vote in its government.“-Frank Crane, Ph. D.

“Under co-operation woman is accorded full equality and can use her special knowledge and experience to greatest advantage.

“The trust is effectively curbed. International good will is pro- moted and iotcmntionnl ties increased. By taking the consumer as the center of its organization it includes every living soul. The great and needed readjustments in society are brought about peacefully. Democracy moves on in Co-operation to the next stage of its world conquest. Profit yields to service, division to fraternity, strife to concord, and, best of all under this beneficent order, we work not for our fellow men but with them.“-Emerson P. Harris, author of “Co- operation the Hope of the Cousumer~”

“THE TOLEDO CO-OPERATIVE STORES CO.” is a co-operative society incorporated under the laws of Ohio. Its immediate object is the reduction of the high cost of living and its ultimate object is to add industrial democracy to our present political democracy. This so- ciety believes that every able-bodied person should be com- ;Azf to work or starve until pensioned for seeices ren-

1; its effort to establish industrial democracy and equal opportunity it will follow the world-famous and eminently successful Rochdale method of co-operation. The Roachdale plan of co-operation was started 75 years ago by a handful of poor English weavers. So rapid and successful has been its efforts that today it is a strong factor in all countries, already predominates in several others, is about to predominate in a score of others and numbers 250 million workers.

The plan involves the establishment of a chain of retail stores, one at a time. Just as soon as these retail stores are firmly establish’ed then B wholesale is established and not until then.

Next it proceeds to manufacture for its own members. Gradually it acquires the mines, forests and other sources of raw material, and finally it purchases land and raises its own food.

Thus. sten bv sten. in a slow. evolutionarv urocess the workers gain-access % the raw materials and”t6e means of production with which to fashion them for their own use. It confiscates no nronertv: it navs snot cash for all it ac- quires; it harms -no -one- &d-it” shgds no blood. But, oh boy! it will make mighty hard sledin’ for idlers, parasites and war profiteers. In brie stroke co-operation dethrones the bad and enthrones the good.

If you do not fully agree with the above principles and program, keep out of the co-operative mov6mentT You’d be a nuisance inside. On the other hand. if vou are in full accord you should join the society. F&h&- information can be had by writing to W. F. Ries, at 353 Rockingham Street, Tol,edo, Ohio. The price of this book is 25 cents.

REND ALL ORDERS DIRECT TO THE AUTHOR

W. F. RIES 558 Rockingham Street TOLEDO, OHIO

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